Somewhere private
by Misaratis
Summary: Dash found the Fenton thermos after Danny lost it one afternoon and when Phantom goes to retrieve it, he's accidentally pulled in to a not-a-date with the jock. It may take some time, but Danny will find that there's more to the bully than he thought. Swaggerbishie. (Very) Slow Burn.
1. Chapter 1

See end of chapter for author's note.

Rated T for future coarse language and minor adult themes.

* * *

Chapter 1: In Which Danny fails at being a Ninja Ghost and almost reads Pomus Pep.

Sam stooped down to pick up one of Danny's pencils for the second time in as many minutes. Not that Danny himself noticed. With sigh she put it back in his locker and grabbed his wrist, just as he was about to drop one of his heavier textbooks to the tiled floor as well. The boy's panicked eyes found her's a moment later, still shifting as if suspicious of every other student in hall. Which of course he was.

"I swear I had it!" He repeated, and by then he, Sam and Tucker had stopped counting how many times Danny had insisted that yes, he had indeed had the thermos this morning. And no, a ghost couldn't have taken it because he would have noticed with his ghost sense. Although perhaps there was chance he hadn't because after all his powers were notoriously unstable even at the best of times but even so his ghost sense had always maintained at least _some_ consistency and-

"Danny." Sam gave her friend a sharp look, to which Danny's only reply was a helpless look thrown over his shoulder to their other friend.

"Sorry man, I'm not helping you clean up." Tucker replied absently, fingers dancing through practiced motions on his PDA. Sam reached over and grabbed the device, earning an indignant scoff. "What did I do?"

"You weren't paying attention, that's what."

With a heavy eye roll Tucker turned in earnest to Danny. "I'm sure it'll be fine. It's not like you haven't lost the thermos before. Besides-" he paused, reclaiming his PDA "it's not like we don't find a way to get it back."

"Yeah but this time it has _Spectra_ in it!" Danny complained "She's always _so_ hard to catch!"

Sam cut in "Tucker's right Danny. I'm sure we'll find it, we just have to keep looking." Danny motioned wildly to his chaos of a locker, all his things jumbled together in his mad search for the thermos. "Yes well, I'm sure we can look without risking destructions of public property."

Danny threw his arms in the air and allowed his head to hit the locker to the left of his in defeat. Tucker cringed at the audible bang.

Sam put a sympathetic hand on Danny's shoulder "Come on. We should get to class." Danny turned to Sam, another complaint ready on his tongue, when he locked eyes with another high schooler waltzing down the hall like he owned the place.

And considering that high schooler was none other than Dash Baxter it was probably fair to say that, in leu of teachers, he did own it.

Dash's face broke out in what might have been a bright smile once upon a time and made a b-line towards the trio. "What's up Fentina! Boy am I glad to see you!" He called happily, the two other jocks behind him sniggering. Dash slammed a rough hand against the locker over Sam's and Danny's heads, looking down on the smaller boy with what could only be described as delight. "Tell you what, I'm in a good mood today, so you'll get to choose if you go in your locker, or in Techno Geek's." The jock to his right did nothing to stifle his laugh.

"Hey Dash." Danny lifted a timid hand in greeting.

"Well, what's it gonna' be Fentoad? My good mood," Dash grabbed Danny by the front of his shirt and slammed his back in to the lockers, the bang punctuating the next word "won't last long."

It was by luck, then, that Danny felt buffered by Dash's thick varsity jacket between them, an unmistakably cylindrical bulge. He blurted out without thinking " _You_ have the thermos?" Dash dropped him, none too gently, back to the floor. Now returned to eye level with his friends he caught the glare Sam was sending to the jocks. Too soon though his field of vision was filled once again by Dash Baxter, pulling out the thermos from his jacket pocket with a flourish.

"Hah! It's the Ghost Boy's ghost capturing whatever." He said laughing, waving it in front of Danny's face. "Get a good look Fenturd, this is probably the closest a freak like you'll ever get to Danny Phantom."

"It belongs to Danny!" Sam shot between them "His parents made it, so give it back."

"Pfft, as if. I saw the Phantom use it myself. He probably forgot it and is on his way right now to get it." Dash shoved the thermos back in to his pocket, keeping his hand curled around it. "And I'm gonna' be the one to give it him. See ya' freaks." Dash made to walk away, but not without delivering a swift knee to Danny's gut, making the boy loose his breath and topple over. Dash left, him and his goons laughing all the way down the hall. They could still hear Dash's voice from around the corner, having moved on from the thermos to boasting his deep friendship with Phantom, due to an incident in which he had saved the Ghost Boy from ten robot ghosts. The outrageous story was something vaguely familiar to the time Danny and Dash had been fitness buddies.

Danny staggered upwards, helped by Sam. "Well." Tucker said, still looking in the direction of the jocks "at least we know where the thermos is."

"Not helping Tucker." Sam said pointedly.

"Hey, I'm just saying, we found it. Danny can just swoop in invisibly and get it later or something."

"Not while he's holding on to it like that."

"Guys come on." Danny said, a very slight wheeze in his voice "Tucker's right. I'm sure when he gets home and can't show off to anyone anymore he'll just put it down and forget about it. We can go to his place before patrol tonight."

Tucker cracked a wry smile "Danny the ninja ghost, stealing soup thermos' for the greater good." He announced cinematically, making the other two laugh.

Unfortunately, contrary to Danny's prediction, Dash did not put it down and forget about it. Danny followed him home, invisibly, marveling over how bizarrely protective Dash seemed over it. On his walk, and that also was strange, considering Dash had a too expensive looking red convertible, Dash held it towards the light to with a look of awe at his prize. He took a detour through the lesser used half of the park, throwing the thermos up in the air and catching it, never dropping, and still hiding it away in his pocket every time someone came in eye sight.

Once home, a large grand house only two blocks from Sam's, Dash meandered around for a frustratingly long time. He made food, chatted with Kwan on the phone and watched the news, a story on Phantom's latest exploit. And all the while keeping the thermos on his person. During the commercials he took it out and looked the thing over, his hands running over the smooth surface almost reverently, carefully and lightly fingering the buttons. Thank God he had better sense than to uncap it or press them. When Dash finally retired to his room, the sky was already darkening and Danny knew the time to meet Sam and Tucker for patrol was fast approaching.

Dash's room was, for the most part, as one might expect for a teenage boy with just a touch too much money than was good for him. It was large, two windows facing the back yard and had three doors, one leading to the hall, having been the one they entered. The walls were painted a creamy, eggshell white, and the furniture was sleek and modern. There was a desk on the wall opposite the windows with an impressive gaming computer. A TV of above average size an make, sitting on the adjacent wall to a queen sized bed. On the bed itself, the covers were mussed, obviously nothing had been done to them since Dash had slept in it last, and the rest of the room reflected an equal untidiness. However the one thing that disturbed Danny was the unusual collection of stuffed bears sitting in the one corner of the room. Danny very almost made a startled yelp at them, having been one of the last things he had expected to see in the room of Casper High's star quarterback.

Dash shrugged off his jacket and tossed it carelessly on his bed. He made his way to the desk, thermos in hand, and placed it on a shelf. He then powered up the computer to start playing music. Danny peered curiously over Dash's shoulder, watching him skip over MP3 files, first Dumpty Humpty, a couple old school bands, some rap thing he didn't recognize, and paused for a moment on a surprisingly lyrical opera song, before going back to Dumpty Humpty again.

With the music turned way up Dash disappeared through one of the other doors, a moment later Danny heard a shower.

Had Danny more common sense, he might have been glad for the obvious opportunity to grab the thermos and slip away in to the waning hours, to call Sam and Tucker and regale them with his tale of daring deception and escape. However Danny had proven time and time again that common sense wasn't, in all actuality, particularly common.

Instead he reached for the mouse.

It was purely for blackmail's sake after all. Think of the dirt Danny might be able to find on Dash's computer, he could use it as leverage the next time Dash wanted a go at his favorite punching bag.

To be fair the bears would work just as well, but that was besides the point.

Aside from the MP3 files, there was a document open, some English assignment that Danny had yet to even start. Although even so the jock hadn't come very far himself, it only contained two and a half poorly worded paragraphs. An F for sure, in Danny's humble opinion.

The internet tabs were of little more interest. There was a page on DOOMED, YouTube, a couple tabs on something football related that he didn't understand a word of, nothing particularly surprising. Though after the teddy bears Danny was sure nothing would be.

The last tab however made Danny's eyes bulge. Unfortunately it wasn't anything to use against Dash, but it was rather disturbing to find himself staring back through an unexpectedly well painted digital drawing of his ghost half. The picture featured him, an impish grin lifting one cheek and staring off to one side, hair windswept, even a slight green tint to what should have been traditionally a rosy freckled hue. Scrolling down, there were similar drawings, some text documents and a handful of little comic strips.

Of course in retrospect Danny realized it was perhaps a little naive of him to think, with the amount of teenage fans he had, that there wouldn't be a weird shrine like blog or something devoted to him. But even so, it was entirely unexpected, and more than a little intrusive.

Very quickly Danny found himself sucked in. Apparently, the page open was a series of favorites by user _PhootballPhan123_ , which Danny admitted was a little clever, until he saw half the users sported some variation of "Phan" in their usernames. The site itself, was anything but. Danny wasn't sure whether he was happy that the site didn't actually have anything correct written, preserving his identity, or annoyed that among the misinformation was an apparently official post describing how he had died, sacrificing himself for his one true love, now doomed to spend his eternity protecting the town she lived in. Three hundred hundred years ago. And people _believed_ it.

He scoffed and continued scrolling through page after page, unaware that the shower had turned off. Just as he was about to click on some document labeled Phantom X Wisconsin Ghost, he could only hope that they were slandering Vlad's reputation as well as his own, Dash swung the door opened and took all of three large strides in to his room before he noticed the other occupant. Danny, for his part, hadn't become so completely absorbed that the movement in his peripheral went unnoticed.

With a short yelp Danny jumped up out of the chair he hadn't noticed he'd sat down in and dropped the mouse, almost toppling the desk chair over in his haste. He threw both his hands over his eyes, yet he couldn't help that they had roamed for a split second over Dash, nude of all but a towel wrapped loosely around his hips. The wide expanse of skin tanned dark from years spent on a sun drenched football field, still glistening and flushed from the hot shower water.

Dash was the first to recover, his brow drew together as he spied the site's homepage. "You were on my computer?" He asked, sounding far more confused than anything else.

"This isn't what it looks like!" Danny yelped "Okay well it is a little what it looks like but I was here for something totally different!"

Dash shuffled on his feet, hesitant for a moment, before crossing the distance between them. Danny couldn't suppress the instinctual flinch from Dash's advance. However, the jock didn't even touch him, instead he reached up to retrieve the thermos. "This, right?" Dash asked, holding it up at eye level. His voice and movements were studiously casual.

"Um, yeah. That's it. So if you wouldn't mind," Danny reached up, intent on leaving this room and uncomfortable conversation as soon as he could. However Dash it seemed, had other plans.

He held the thermos higher, just a touch, and yet out of Danny's reach. "Why were you on my computer? I didn't think Danny Phantom snooped a lot." A small grin broke Dash's face when Danny gaped. Dash had no right to smile like that when not hours before he'd been staring down at Danny with a so much nastier expression.

"I wasn't snooping!"

Dash raised an unconvinced eyebrow "Then what were you doing?"

Danny narrowed his eyes, but that only seemed to make Dash happier "You were the one that left your computer unlocked."

Dash snorted "Yeah, my personal computer was left unlocked in my own bedroom." Danny was thrown by the jibe, for it was neither angry nor ill meant. And the open, easy smile gracing Dash's face, accompanied by the blush that Danny only now realized had yet to subside, made the entire exchange far too friendly than what he was used to when Dash was involved.

"Whatever, just give me the thermos already." Danny demanded, with a little more heat than he had intended. He held out his hand expectantly.

Contrary to passing it over, Dash paused, deliberating. "Um, well, since you're here, you could maybe stay for a bit?" Danny's surprise must have shown on his face, because Dash hastily continued with a nervous laugh "I mean, I'm sure being a hero is pretty exhausting. You could maybe relax for a little while?"

It took Danny a moment to process. Dash Baxter asking him to stay for a bit? To what, hang out? "I really should get going. I don't have time for just, relaxing." He said slowly, at a loss for anything else.

Danny couldn't quite bear the way the other teen's face fell, even if it was Dash Baxter. "Oh yeah, of course. Never mind." Dash replied, finally relinquishing the thermos.

"Thanks. I'll um," see you around? chat later? "bye." He finished lamely and hover a couple inches off the ground, preparing to take off. Dash shrugged and offered a small goodbye of his own, staring intently at his door. And seeing his lower lip jutting out the way it was, Danny couldn't help but compare him to to Dani, petulant and determined to play it cool.

With an inward groan Danny landed again. Even if it was Dash, personal bully and all around ass, he couldn't possibly leave things as they were. Perhaps it was his hero side talking, but Danny felt as though he had to at least try to make an effort to be cordial with his fans, on the few occasions any of them managed to corner him. There were after all so many people that already hated his guts, best not make the list one teenager longer.

That's what had happened with Valerie and look how well _that_ turned out.

And really, it was probably just his bad luck that one of these occasions happened to be with Dash.

"I um, should probably thank you, for taking care of this. There was a ghost in this one so it was great that you didn't let her out." Danny began, and wow, Dash had no poker face to speak of. "I can't tonight, like I said, but I can probably make time tomorrow?" If he made it sound like he was super busy, Dash would probably let him off the hook after spending only a couple hours wth him, right? Right.

"Really? You mean it? I have school tomorrow but I'm totally free after!"

"Sure, I'll see you after school then." Danny said, and for the second time rose to the air, but paused again, now to quickly add "Nowhere public." before finally making his exit.

* * *

 **Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Feel free to leave a review please, anyone writing knows how we live for them!**

 **I'd also like to apologize, for abandoning my other story. I started it like, four or five years ago and got only a few chapters in. I can't really bear to look at it, it's probably terrible, if I reread it I'm worried my face will break from cringing.**

 **Anyway, I'll be putting my ANs at the end of every chapter, if I have anything to say that is, so those of you who don't like to read through them can skip right over.**

 **Criticism is always appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: In which Danny denies that he's on a date

"It's not a date." Danny insisted for the- he had lost count of how many times he'd repeated himself. He tried to focus on chasing down the ectopus ahead of him and not the incessant teasing of his friends.

"I dunno' man." Tucker responded, his voice slightly crackled through the Fenton phone speaker. "It's Friday tomorrow."

"And you'll have the school quarterback all to yourself." Sam chimed in helpfully, also over the Fenton phone, despite riding her scooter just below Danny.

"For who knows how long."

"Somewhere private."

"I said nowhere public! People always go crazy when they see Danny Phantom around!" Danny yelled and fired an ectoray at the ghost, missing it by what couldn't have been more than half an inch. His frown only grew at his friends laughter, both of them apparently endlessly entertained by his rotten luck. "Are you going to help me or what?" Danny demanded sharply.

From the ground a laser shot up and hit the ectopus square in it's head, the ghost having been distracted trying to evade it's pursuer. Danny landed lightly on the asphalt, next to where Sam stood dismounted, blowing the smoke from her wrist mounted ray theatrically. She laughed "Danny you're too easy to tease." Danny's only reply was a scowl as he sucked the disoriented ghost in to the thermos.

"And now that you two lovebirds aren't a thing anymore I have to find something else to pester you about." Tucker said with notable exasperation in his voice.

"Ugh!" Danny exclaimed "Remind me why I'm still friends with either of you."

Sam snorted, repositioing herself on her scooter "Because we're the best sidekicks ever."

"And this sidekick is wiped." Tucker said "We should probably call it a night."

"Now that is something I can agree with." Danny said, making a show of yawning.

Sam started the engine "Yeah, big day tomorrow, you need your beauty sleep." She drove off without giving Danny a chance to reply.

" _It's not a date_!" he called at her back, but was only met with the laughter of his friends through the ear piece.

* * *

The next morning, blissfully, Sam and Tucker were in less of a mood to bother Danny, or, at at least not quite as relentlessly as the night before. The day passed in relative peace, the were no ghosts during classes, though there had been one at lunch, thankfully small and easily defeated. The only time Danny had seen Dash all day was once in English, and the jock seemed wholly uninterested in anything around him. And to top it off Danny managed a B in his latest geography paper.

The day might have been perfect if Danny hadn't promised to spend a few hours of his Friday afternoon pandering to Dash's inner fanboy.

"I'll see you two later." The three of them stood behind the school, twenty minutes after the end of the day, when most of the traffic had died down. Danny, already transformed, was about to take off to meet Dash, they had seen him waiting in front of the school, behind a tree.

"Not so fast Danny." Sam caught his shoulder and drew something dark out of her school but bag "Take this."

Danny accepted the offered lump of fabric, looking at his friend curiously. "What's this?" Unfolding the item he was met with a soft black hoodie, his hero's emblem stitched over the right breast. "A Danny Phantom hoodie?" There had been Danny Phantom paraphernalia available for purchase for at least a few months, but Danny doubted that either of his friends, especially Sam being so determined to go against the flow, would own anything.

"And pants. Figured you wouldn't remember to bring some sort of disguise for your incognito date." Sam smirked.

Tucker barked a laugh but mercifully said nothing, nose pointed down to his PDA. "It's not a date." Danny countered automatically, but pulled on the pants anyway. While sliding his arms through the hoodie sleeves he said "I'll see you guys at Sam's in two hours. I don't want to spend more time than I have to with Dash." he added under his breath.

Finished dressed Danny turned to his friends fully "Okay?" Sam only smiled and swiftly slid a pair of dark sunglasses over his his eyes and tugged the hood over his give-away white hair. Danny drew his mouth together and asked again " _Okay_?"

"Great. Now instead of looking like a ghost you look like a drug dealer." Tucker supplied helpfully and received a sharp slap on the arm as reward, making him yelp. He shot Sam a dark glare and rubbed his now tender skin. "Y'know Danny, for what's it's worth we do actually feel for you. Entertaing Dash even while he's fanboying is rough. And it's also _Dash_ , so that sucks." Tucker said. And to his friends credit they did actually try to look a little sympathetic.

Danny rolled his eyes but he couldn't stave off the small smile tugging at his lips "Okay you can stop pretending like you don't think this whole thing's is hilarious now." Danny turned and flew off, not needing to see their faces to hear the grins in their laughter.

Danny found Dash still leaning against the tree, still alone. He landed soundlessly and poked his head around the trunk. "Dash?"

The jock jumped away from the tree. "Danny Phantom!" He exclaimed.

"Um, just call me Danny, please."

"Oh, uh sure. Danny." Dash replied. He cocked his head to one side and looked Danny up and down. "Why are you wearing that?"

Danny suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "Mostly so people won't recognize me. So were we gonna' go somewhere or..?" Danny asked slowly. He wanted to minimize his time with Dash as much as possible.

"Oh yeah! I have the perfect place picked out!" Dash beckoned Danny to follow. As they walked, Danny wondered what was worse, the following silence that sat like a weight on their heads or the alternative: talking with Dash. Danny tried to appear casual, as if it didn't bother him, deciding he preferred the reticence. What were they even meant to talk about? Dash knew nothing of ghosts, or at least nothing beyond what your average Amity Park resident would pick up, and it's wasn't as if Danny could speak openly of other facets of his life, Phantom wasn't even supposed to have a life. And as for Dash, what could he possibly discuss that was of interest to Danny? Football? A-list gossip?

"Um, we're here." Dash said, stopping in front of an all too familiar establishment. However more importantly, it was packed with teenagers on a Friday afternoon.

"The Nasty Burger?"

"I figure we could get some take way?" Dash said as way of explanation "I haven't eaten since lunch, I don't know about you but I'm super hungry. Or," Dash paused and looked at Danny with worry "do ghosts even eat? Wait that was a stupid question! I can just wait until later-"

Danny interrupted the tumble of words with a small smile, it was perhaps a little funny how nervous Dash was. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad after all. "I actually do eat. And I actually am pretty hungry."

The relief was apparent on Dash's face. "Oh good. I'll just go and get some burgers then. You can wait here if you don't want to go in." Danny nodded in reply and Dash jogged to the door and disappeared inside.

Several minutes later Dash emerged to find Danny leaning against the back of the building, just around the corner from where they parted, pulling at a loose thread on his left cuff. "Danny?" He asked hesitantly. Danny picked his eyes off his sleeve to Dash holding up a paper bag. There were small grease spots on the bottom already, and Danny could smell the burgers. The name circled his head, finding it supremly strange to hear his first name, void of insult, roll off Dash's tongue. On getting no responce Dash took a step close "Ready to go?"

Danny blinked stupidly "Oh, uh yeah. Where to?"

"Nowhere public, just like you said." Dash said with a sheepish smile. As they walked, Danny couldn't keep his eyes from wandering over to Dash's face. There was that blush again. It seemed so alien on a face Danny thought he had come to know so well. "Do you do this a lot?"

Danny looked at him fully. "Do what?"

Dash gestured vaguely between them with the hand still holding the Nasty Burger bag "This. Hanging out with people."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "I'm not allowed to hang out with people?"

"No no!" Dash amended "It's just that, well, the only time anybody ever sees you is when you're fighting a ghost. I was just wondering if you like, just chill?"

"Oh." Danny replied. He said nothing more, wondering what might pass as an adequate response for a ghost to make. Eventually he simply settled on "No, I don't do this a lot." It wasn't a complete lie, he never just hung out out with Sam or Tucker as Phantom.

Silence descended on them again, stretching out what might have made a relatively short walk. Eventually Dash broke it again "I'm sorry if that was a weird question."

The statement jerked Danny's head around. If Dash's friendly behavior had been bizarre, certainly him apologizing was nothing short of a miracle. "You're sorry?" was all Danny managed, at a complete loss.

Dash glanced at him with an unreadable expression and Danny was sure his own face spelled his outright astonishment. When Dash spoke again, he watched Danny carefully from the corner of his eye "Yeah, you just seem sorta', I dunno', quite. Sorry if I like, offended you or anything."

Danny blinked. Dash. Dash Baxter, reflective, observant and _apologetic_? These were things that Danny had never, not once, thought him capable of in any way, shape or form. Of course Danny was aware that Dash had no reason to be anything less than civil towards Phantom, but it was so strange, so unimaginable to see the jock being.. hesitant? Sincere? Danny couldn't quite name it but it was _weird_.

Whatever it was Danny wanted it gone from Dash's face. It's was extremely off balancing to see _Dash_ this way. "You didn't offend me, I just um.. you're just not what I expected."

"'Not what you expected'?" Dash repeated questioningly "What did you expect?"

A rude, egotistical, big, dumb jock to start. "Um... less nice."

"'Less nice'?" Dash looked almost offended himself. "Why did you think I wouldn't be nice?"

"Ah um. Oh, no reason I guess. It's just you, and- and yeah, that's.." He stammered. Why'd he have to go and open his big mouth and call _Dash Baxter_ not nice to his face. He looked around frantically for anything to change the subject "Hey is that the park? Hah, don't tell me that's where we're going." Danny's hand found the back of his neck and he looked anywhere but at the jock.

"Yeah it is actually." Though as soon as Dash said it he turned to the right, away from the entrance still thirty or so feet ahead of them, and started feeling along the planks that circled the park in a high fence. Danny could almost sag with relief that Dash decided to drop their conversation in favor of- whatever he was doing.

Almost a minute passed, with Dash running his hands up and down every strip of wood. "There!" He cried eventually, with a touch of triumph. Dash looked around covertly, there was no one but the two of them around, seeing as Dash had pulled them down a little used side street. On one side there was the park, on the other the backs of houses, and for the most part they were shielded by their own fences and hedges.

Danny was about to ask what he was doing when Dash pulled on a knot in the wood, pivoting a plank upwards. "After you." He said with a smirk.

"Okay.." Danny approached the breach in the fence with a raised eyebrow. On the inside, there was a narrow path leading though thick shubbery and winding between trees. Dash pushed through the slim gap in the fence and carefully closed it behind him.

"Come on." Dash said and walked a head, a small excited bounce in his step.

Danny followed curiously and was rewarded with a slight incline, all the while the path widened progressively before opening up in to a small clearing. The grass was overgrown and unkempt, the trees even more so. Their branches stretched out and drooped closer to the ground, tightening the the circle of sky visible from where they stood, and through them, thick as they were, a whisper of the fence was visible to the right. In the middle, thrown halfway in the long early evening shadows, stood a very weathered picnic table.

Dash crossed the clearing to the table and dropped on to one of the benches. Danny followed at a much slower place, taking the time to turn in a little circle and whistle appreciatively "When'd you find this place?" In all his time flying over Amity, and their unusually large park for which the town was named, he had never noticed the densely wooded knoll.

Danny heard the paper bag crinkling behind his back. "Been coming here since I was a kid actually. I don't think anybody else knows about it."

"Seriously?"

"Yup. As long as we don't shout people won't even hear us 'cause the trees are so thick." Dash pealed the paper from the burger in his hand and bit in to it, moaning deeply. "God that hit the spot."

Laughing, Danny slid on the bench opposite. "So much for being quiet." He joked, Dash only shrugged bashfully. Danny made to tear in to his meal, before thinking better of it and shrugging off his hoodie, then his glasses and gloves. He smiled wryly at Dash as he reached in to the bag "I made the mistake of eating with these gloves on only once. Great for fighting, terrible for just about anything else."

Dash swallowed and chuckled "Um, I didn't know what kind you liked so I just got a couple regulars."

"A burger's a burger." Danny unwrapped his and took a large bite. Through a full mouth he continued "And this one isn't green or trying to kill me."

"Trying to kill you?" Dash paused halfway to his next bite, the look on his face comic.

Danny stifled a laugh that surely would have made him spit. "You'd be surprised what I've had to deal with." Danny thought back to two weeks prior, when his Dad decided to have a 'Fenton Family Barbecue'.

"I never thought killer burgers was on the agenda." Dash said with a smile.

"I never thought killer hotdogs would be either! They actually followed me to the Ghost Zone!" Danny laughed good naturedly.

"What's the Ghost Zone?"

Danny stopped short, he was so used to people around him, his friends, his family, just knowing what something so basic as the Ghost Zone was. It was a reminder, just as the conversation began to mollify him, of how truly odd the whole circumstance was. "It's, um, I guess you could say it's where all the ghosts live. Or, exist." Dash still looked confused, so Danny went on "I think it's kinda like some weird pocket dimension or something. And you have to go through a portal to get there. Amity is full of natural portals but there's also one in the Fenton's lab. Didn't you ever wonder where all the ghosts keep showing up from? And where they went after?"

Dash looked thoughtful for a moment "Not really. It's not something I ever thought about to be honest. But I mean, it makes sense that ghosts would have some ghost place to go to."

"It makes about as much sense as anything else. You'll find all kinds of ghosts there. Especially the the crazy hermit ones. "

An side smile split Dash's face, "What are some of the weirdest you've met?"

Danny barked a laugh. Deciding that indulging in a few of funnier ghost encounters he'd had couldn't hurt, though some of them might have have to be edited of human elements. "Gosh, where to even start! If we're talking hermit ghosts I'll have to tell you about Ghost Writer. I was in the Zone a couple Christmas' ago blowing off some steam when I accidentally destroyed they guy's book. He got so ticked off that he trapped me in a rhyming, Christmas-themed story book for the rest of the day!"

The minutes ticked by, Danny regaling the more exciting stories he had of being Phantom with increasing humor. He went through the list, telling Dash of some of the different ghost he'd had both the displeasure and honor of meeting. As they started, slowly, to gain confidence with each other, Danny obliged longer stories and Dash himself encouraged by injecting a few well placed, and often disparaging, jokes. As the day ticked on and shadows became longer, as the traffic slowed and park calmed, families returning to their homes for dinner, Danny found himself forgetting the exact nature just whom it was he sat with. The fact that it was indeed Dash that leaned in and, without promt from Danny, decided that the fruitloop definetly just need a cat. That it was Dash that slapped a hand on the table and shook with restrained peal. Dash smiled. Dash joked. Dash teased.

And Danny ventured to think that perhaps Dash was beginning to forget who he was with too. There were fewer nervous glances, he stopped trying so hard to be carefully nonchalant and started genuinely relaxing in to their banter. It was worryingly disarming.

"I don't even remember what I did to him." Danny laughed, eventually having arrived at the subject of Poindexter.

"No?" Dash's eyes shone with mirth.

"No, but you won't believe how angry he got. Overshadowed me- well strictly speaking he didn't overshadow me because I ended up trapped in the mirror he was haunting- but yeah he took over my body and got me in a _ton_ of trouble. and people didn't even know it was him! When was the last time anyone heard me say 'Gee wiz' 'Golly gosh'!" Danny shook his head. "Actually now that I think about it, I think he was the first one that ever called me a-" Danny stopped himself short, having almost just said 'halfa'.

"Called you a..?" Dash pressed.

"Bully." Danny blurted, being the only other word Danny could remember Poindexter calling him. Of course it dawned on him a moment later that he could have easily just made something up.

And seeing Dash's carefree expression sober like it did Danny thought he definitely should have made something up. "He called you that?"

"Uh, yeah. But it's an old grudge, I don't think he's very upset about it anymore."

"Oh. That's good." Dash said blandly, eyes down.

Feeling emboldened, Danny decided to try to stress Dash for a reaction. After all, who better to confront Dash on his bullying than Dash's own hero? "He really hated bullies- well he still does- so when he got it in to his head that I was one, he did everything he could to stop me. As annoying as it was, he still did the right thing."

"Oh, yeah but then he probably figured out pretty quick that you aren't, so it's all good, right?" Dash said, a touch slowly, back to his carefully measured nonchalance.

Danny pinched his lips "Yeah I guess. But that doesn't mean that, at the time, he didn't feel hurt. No one likes a bully."

Dash still wouldn't meet his eyes. Instead he seemed to be staring quite resolutely at some point somewhere behind Danny's left shoulder. "No they don't." Dash confirmed. It was the correct thing to say, given the circumstances. Danny decided that, regardless of the great few hours they'd spent together, and how different and nice Dash had been in that time, honesty obviously wasn't in the cards.

Danny sighed and got up, reaching over and grabbing his things at the same time. "Neither do I Dash." He straitened, and faced The jock one last time, Dash managed to meet his eyes "I had a surprisingly good time. You're really not what I expected. Bye."

Dash waved his hand in farewell, and Danny took off. He forced himself to ignore Dash's expression, once again utterly helpless. He'd done his duty, so it was over, done. Danny shook his head, wind whipping his hair out of his face as he sped towards Sam's. However fine a time head enjoyed with Dash, he would just have to leave it like that. After that last exchange Dash reminded Danny all too clearly of the type of person he really was.

It had been really nice while it lasted though.

* * *

 **Hi! Thank you for all the support! Especially the people who took the time to write reviews, you rock, and I'll try to deliver :)**

 **That said it's Thursday again (well technically it's just over midnight so it's Friday) and I'm posting. I didn't want to promise I'd update every week, and I still don't want to, but I can see now it'll be more than sustainable to update bi-monthly or monthly, at the very least.**

 **Thanks again! Criticism is always appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: In which Sam and Tucker are giant assholes and Danny is a stalker.

In Danny's humble opinion, it took entirely too long for his best friends to eventually get bored of interrogating him. They were always there for him, and he for them. They were the two people he would risk anything for, share anything with, do anything with. And after so many years of friendship, they had all seen each other at their very worst, effectively erasing any and all embarrassment.

That said, having known two people for as long as he had, meant that they knew exactly all the right ways to get each other riled up. Sometimes, they were simply the worst.

So naturally he'd been hesitant to share the finer details of his oh-my-god-please-stop-calling-it-a-date. Every time he tried to explain how nice Dash had been, how open his smile and how bright his eyes were. How, despite how Danny had very little experience in making new friends, somehow it seemed easy with Dash. At least, easy so long as he was Phantom. How people acted around their hero was hardly an accurate gage of character. But every time he tried to put his thoughts to coherent words, he'd fail and fall back on something to the effect of "I dunno' guys, the whole thing was really _really_ _weird_."

And even though by Monday they did _finally_ stop asking questions, they were perfectly content to continue poking fun at the entire ordeal. Danny had the very distinct impression that no matter how old and decrepit the three of them got, they would never let him live it down. There'd always be the joke between them of that time way back when, when Danny's hero complex forced him to hang out with that guy from high school they hated.

The following week at school, reminding them of precisely why they indeed hated Dash, the jock seemed to have settled in a supremely bad mood. First chance he got he banged roughly into Danny, pushing the much smaller boy to the side and against the cold, waiting lockers, without even so much as looking at him. Dash only continued on, doing the same for any other unfortunate student that happened to be in his way. It might have been Danny's imagination, but he was sure he'd been shoved extra harshly.

So much for Dash possibly feeling even a little remorseful .

His friends had dutifully scowled, but done nothing, as usual. There was nothing to be done. Dash was still Dash, and Danny made himself ignore any sadness that rose at the loss of the funny, happy teenager he'd met. That person was never even his to lose anyway.

The week after that again, that's when things, yet again, changed. Dash handn't been at school. Tuesday.. Wednesday.. Thursday, still no sign of him. Danny couldn't say he wasn't pleased, it meant no more ducking around corners, and Tucker wasted no opportunity to exhilarate. Yet, there was a small part of him that remained uneasy over the absence, Dash had always been punctual, and certainly never missed more than a day or so at school, despite how much he griped over it.

Danny, glutton for punishment as he apparently was, decided to voice this. "Don't you think it's weird though?"

"What's weird?" Sam asked.

Danny stared pensively at his DOOMED loading screen. "That Dash has been gone for a whole week. He never misses this much school."

They laughed. Loudly and obnoxiously. "Geez Danny," Tucker said once they'd calmed down enough to speak "we know you went out with the guy-"

"Not a date."

"But we never thought you'd be pining after him!" They burst in to laughter again, leaving Danny to scowl at his screen, waiting for them to finish.

"Wait wait wait, you guys hear that?"

Still giggling, Sam managed a small "Hmm?"

"It's the sound of my two best friends being giant assholes." Danny's character was shot in the back. "Hey!"

"Oh I'm sorry." Danny could practically feel the smugness oozing off Sam "I was just being an asshole." Danny scowled again, deeply betrayed. Tucker's laughter wasn't helping either.

Two days later, early Sunday evening, Danny floated lazily through the clear sky over their town. Flying was an absolute bliss to Danny. It cleared his mind, relaxed him. The great open sky wrapped itself around him in its seemingly vast emptiness, especially on a warm mid-April day like this one. He made a long circuit of the park, admiring the sky as it began to take on a certain shade of pink near sun's unhurried demit. He kept half an eye out for the little spot Dash had taken him to. Now knowing it was there he found it easily near the south-west corner of the park. No wonder he hadn't seen it from the skies, the trees were so overgrown from a bird's-eye perspective it looked very small, nestled neatly so close to the fence. Further still in that direction Danny knew Sam's neighborhood stood. It would only take a short two- maybe three- minutes to get there.

It was probably silly to think that Dash wanted to see him. Especially after how they left things two Fridays prior. And sillier still to think that Danny might want to check on him. What did he care that Dash was out of school? He had bigger things to worry about than the wellbeing of some jock.

Although, it could be reasoned that it was was probably, no definitely, perfectly normal, for one student be to slightly worried for another. And for the school star quarterback of course, not that Danny himself was particularly interested by the sport, but there were plenty others that were, despite the season being over for the year. In any case, concern was justified, Danny told himself.

Dash's light was on.

Invisibly, Danny lowered himself to one of Dash's windows. Kwan was there, and so was Dash. Danny tried not to gasp, he phased in to the room, getting as close as he dared.

What drew Danny's eyes first, following the bandages wrapped securely around Dash's head and completely covering his right ear, was the large gash running along his jaw on the same side. Two stitches Danny counted, and if he wasn't mistaken, the remnants of one more. He wore a oversized, baggy T-shirt, leaving his forearms and their own plasters bear. However they were simple adhesive bandages, of a a large size granted, but it gave Danny hope that perhaps the wounds on his arms were purely cosmetic.

Three times Danny's eyes wandered over Dash's body, from the top of his head, his hair having been neglected it's usual gel and styling, down to the one foot that dangled off the edge of the bed. They skimmed over the motley of bruises colorfully splashed across the most of Dash's right side, and a fair few across his left as well. On the second round up again Danny noticed a whisper of gauze just under the shirt's collar. From their direction Danny guessed they wrapped around his chest.

Kwan sat backwards on the desk chair, pulled up close to the side of the bed and listening to what sounded like the end of a long list of injuries.

"-two ribs broken in three places and a light concussion. Most of the bruises and cuts and stuff look a lot better now."

Kwan's jaw hung "Dash, your face looks like it was punched by a rhino."

Dash quirked a smile "I said most."

Kwan slumped back in his chair "One hell of a car crash. I knew it was a bad idea to go joyriding by the docks."

"That box came out of nowhere!"

Kwan's face was entirely unsympathetic, despite the smile threatening the edge of both their lips. "Dash, the docs are haunted. You know that."

"Kwan, this whole town in haunted. And I just got my car back from the shop, duh I was gonna take that new paint job out for a spin."

"Good thing you have crazy insurance" Kwan grinned.

With a snort Dash agreed "I wonder if there's anywhere else in this country that has 'ghost attack' in their plan." They laughed heartily, Danny pressed a hand to his mouth to stifle his own. "Anyway, any new gossip from school?"

"Nothing much. The teachers were asking about you. Football season is over so nobody on the team really cared, coach gave me this really intense look in the halls, so I guess that as close to sympathy as we'll ever get. Oh! And Paulina is throwing a get-well party for you tomorrow."

"Mom's not letting me back to school 'till week after next, earliest." Dash deadpanned. "And it's a Monday! Who throws a party on a Monday?"

Kwan grinned "And when has that ever stopped Paulie?"

"Yeah I guess you're right." Dash chuckled.

Kwan flipped the chair right-way forward and leaned back, putting his arms up and around his head. "So, while we're here, can I ask you something?" He said slowly, hesitancy replacing the cheerfulness in his murky brown eyes.

"Sure." Dash answered immediately, carful curiosity in his features. "But I don't get why it has to be here and not anywhere else."

Kwan shrugged "It doesn't have to be here, but I figured now was as good a time as any."

"Okay..."

"It's just that, well, are you okay? I mean, you haven't really been yourself lately."

Dash laughed lightly "I came off morphine two days ago, yes, I completely agree that I wasn't myself."

"You know that's not what I mean Dash." Kwan said flatly.

"Then what do you mean?"

Kwan sighed "I mean that the other guys probably didn't notice, but all of last week, last week you were at school that is, you were pretty..." Kwan paused, casting a quick glance towards the ceiling as if it could tell him the word he was looking for "stand-offish."

"I was being stand-offish." Dash parroted in a skeptical monotone.

"Work with me, you get what I mean. I just wanted to ask if you were doing alright, seemed like something was on your mind."

"Nothing's on my mind." Dash said, a touch too quickly.

Kwan looked thoroughly unconvinced, and Danny was very much inclined likewise. "Okay so you do realize I can tell when you're lying, right?"

"Nothing is on my mind." Dash repeated himself, emphasizing each word.

Kwan huffed "Dash."

"Kwan!" Dash groaned, lifting the one hand to rub at the good side of his face. "Kwan I was literally in the hospital, do we have to talk about this now?"

"So there is a 'this'?"

"No there isn't." Dash insisted firmly.

Kwan was silent for a moment, studying Dash's expression. His finger tapped an agitated rhythm again the chair's armrest. "It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with who you were with on Friday a couple weeks ago-"

Too suddenly the still normally colored side of Dash's face bloomed in bright red. "No!"

"'Cause I'm just saying that you seemed pretty determined not to tell me any datails-"

"There are no details."

"And they obviously said something that got to you." Dash remained silent, determined not to meet his friend's eye. "Dash?" Dash finally glanced up, the look a bridge between the two people built over years of friendship. Before Dash brought his eyes down again something passed over that bridge, something Danny couldn't understand but it seemed to mean the world to Kwan. "Was it really that bad?"

Dash interlocked his fingers, running one thumb over the opposite hand's row of knuckles. "I.." he sighed "I don't even know what to say."

"C'mon, out with it. I'm not gonna' lie, you're starting to freak me out a little bit." Danny was almost glad for the confirmation from Kwan that Dash's behavior was indeed abnormal. It was so far from the sauntering jock Danny knew, and again far from the smiling, carefree teenager Danny met in the park.

"The stuff we do to Fenton and them, is it really that bad?" Dash all but blurted.

Kwan leaned back in his char and crossed his arms "That's what this is about? Fenton's got you like this?"

"No." Dash answered, and Danny was a little offended over the slight indignation coloring his tone. "I was just wondering if we're-"

"You're."

" _Me and the guys_ are really all that bad to them."

Kwan looked Dash squarely in the face and answered flatly "Yes. Yes you are."

"What? No we're not!" Dash exclaimed. Danny was taken back to see genuine shock on the bruised face. Was he really not aware of how far he took his bullying?

Kwan's face read unimpressed "You don't have to look so surprised. Don't tell me you haven't noticed when he's all beat up."

"That could be _anything_. Maybe he, I dunno, wrestles." Dash countered, it was a week argument, and they all knew it.

"Does he look like someone who wrestles?"

Dash's anger spiked "Maybe his freaky parents take him ghost hunting or whatever. Bet his girlfriend likes it."

Despite the tension between the two jocks, Danny couldn't help but snort at the comment. Though nothing between him and Sam ever came to fruition, and it wasn't strictly speaking his parents that took him hunting, it still hit laughably close to the truth. Danny slapped a hand over his mouth, realizing his mistake when Dash and Kwan's heads whipped around, gazes searching the room. Once Danny could have sworn he met eyes with Dash, but the crystalline blues left his a moment later.

Kwan, returning to the conversation, slumped back in his chair with a certain air of resignation. "Okay Dash, how about this, you remember way back, while you were still going out with Paulina?"

Dash regarded Kwan dubiously "What does Paulina have to do with anything?"

"Bare with me." Kwan pressed on "You remember how you would keep telling me how everything with her felt awkward?"

"Yes..." Dash answered slowly, dubiousness morphing in to outright suspicion.

"And how you did everything you could to avoid being alone with her." Dash remained silent. "And I mean the poor girl even stopped wearing lipgloss because you thought it was gross-"

"It is!"

"But," Kwan held up a finger, looking seriously at his friend "then do you remember your trip to visit your relatives in Florida."

"Why do keep asking if I remember all of this, of course I do. What's your point with all this?"

"There's a point I promise. When you finally came home, first thing you told me was how you met Frank and-"

"Wait, no!" Dash exclaimed but Kwan continued without missing a beat.

"And how you had this big revelation-"

"I know where you're going-"

"And you broke up with Pauline literally that same day and she was _pissed_." That managed to draw a small grin from Dash, though he was obviously trying very hard not to think it funny.

"Are you done?" Dash demanded, though the heat in his voice had evaporated. Danny was left with the unmistakable feeling of being out of the loop. Apparently this Frank person, whoever he was, made some sort of inside joke between the two.

Kwan crossed his arms with a deceptively gentle smile "Point is Dash, when you decide to be too stubborn about something, you have to have to truth shoved so far up your egotistical ass that it won't come out again 'till this time next year." His smile turned in to something triumphant. "No pun intended."

Dash scoffed "Yeah as if." Again, Danny didn't get it.

Kwan laughed, "Yeah you're right, but at least I can admit when someone else is right." There was a muffled beeping noise interrupting a no doubt scathing response from Dash. Kwan took out his phone from his varsity jacket pocket and swore "I had no idea it was this late already." He rushed to his bag and dropped textbook after textbook heavily on the foot of Dash's bed as he drew them out. "There's a list of all the upcoming due dates in the math book."

Dash paled at the impressive pile "But the doctor said no electronics or books. Not until after the weekend at least." He looked up at Kwan imploringly.

"Dude, I was not about to argue with your Mom. I still remember what happened after your first F."

"Oh god Kwan she's gonna' kill me."

Kwan carefully pat Dash's shoulder with a look of solidarity "When she does I'll hide your teddy bear collection." He grinned and Dash's light glare "Anyway, I'll come visit some time during the week, and mark my words, I'll figure out who you were hanging out with that Friday." Kwan departed the room with a quick wave, leaving Dash sputtering in response.

The bedroom door clicked shut, and Dash leaned back carefully on the small mountain of pillows, heaving a sigh. Danny took that as his que to leave, with a guilty feeling settling in his stomach of having intruded on a private conversation.

Halfway through the wall Dash called, hesitant and questioning, "Danny?"

* * *

 **Another Thursday, another chapter ^^ As always, reviews are catenip for authors, so please give me my fix.**

 **And on a slightly separate note, I made a cover for the fic (plus a new profile pic too) I think they're really cute if I do say so myself. I'll see you at the next chapter! Criticism is always appreciated!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: In which Danny makes a new friend and a new enemy, it's been a productive chapter people.

Danny paused.

No. He couldn't know.

Could he?

No, there was no way. Danny had been invisible the whole time.

So he snorted once and got their attention but they _definitely_ dismissed it a second later.

"Okay seriously, I know you're here."

Danny slowly retracted himself from the wall and turned to Dash. No way he knew, right? Right. The jock was staring intently ahead, at the blank TV screen across from his bed. Was he... bluffing?

No. Yes, maybe?

"How'd you know it was me?" Danny asked, carefully dropping the invisibility. If he'd already been found out he might as well get to know how.

Dash's head whipped around to face Danny, however it didn't go unnoticed how contentiously still he kept his torso. "I knew it! You _were_ there!"

"Wait, so you _didn't_ know?" Danny exclaimed.

"No! Well I mean I was _pretty_ sure..."

"But _how_?"

Dash brought a hand up to itch at his cheek impishly "Oh, well I um," his voice lowered slightly "recognized... your laugh." Dash wouldn't look at him, but Danny found himself studying the other teenager's face. Dash could recognize his laugh? It wasn't even a proper laugh! Dash worried the inside of his lower lip, the very tip of his tongue poking out to wet them, they were slightly chapped. "Was that weird?"

Danny blinked "What? No! Well okay maybe it's a little weird." Danny couldn't look away, that look of abashment so utterly alien.

However the one end Dash's lips lifted all the same, boyishness lighting his face like a candle. "Weirder than apparently having a ghost stalker?"

Danny sputtered, his turn to feel embarrassed "I'm not stalking you!"

"I dunno," Dash continued, and Danny almost decided he preferred when the jock was flustered "that's twice this month I've caught you lurking in my room."

"I wasn't _lurking_!" Danny all but yelled. His only answer was laugher.

"Then what do you call hanging out invisibly listening to other people's _private_ conversations? Lurking or stalking, pick your poison." That grin was very quickly rising to top of Danny's list of faces he didn't like Dash Baxter making.

Danny groaned. How was it possible for Dash be so _disarming_? It was making it exceedingly difficult to be genuinely angry with him. "Fine whatever." There was no real heat to Danny's voice, and it managed to draw another laugh from Dash. Danny cast his eyes around, looking for a change of subject. "What happened to you anyway? You look worse than I do after most of my fights."

"What, didn't the stalker hear that part of the conversation he was listening in on?" Good god, would that loathsome smirk ever yield?

"No." Danny said pointedly, deciding he didn't want Dash knowing exactly how much he'd herd. It was bad enough Dash caught him _yet again_. And with a bluff no less.

The shine in Dash's eyes betrayed his disbelief, but he mercifully humored Danny "It wasn't that bad to be honest. I'd just got my car back from the shop, had it in for a new paint job, so me and a couple of friends took it out for a spin down by the docks. We were just messing around and crashed."

"'It wasn't that bad to be honest'?"

Dash shrugged inwards toward himself and scratched at his cheek again. "Um, no. I mean it looks a lot worse than it is." Two brokered ribs, yeah, that definitely sounded worse than it looked.

Even so, Danny decided to drop it. Let him play tough if that's what he absolutely wanted. "You should rub a banana peal or vinegar on your bruises."

"What?" Dash's face contorted in comic confusion.

Danny laughed lightly. It always had seemed strange to him too. "Yeah. I don't remember where I heard it, but it's supposed to help bruises heal faster. I dunno', it could just be placebo." Danny shrugged.

"A banana peal and vinegar sounds really random."

Danny laughed "Trust me it is. But it stops feeling stupid after the third or fourth bruise. I'd try just about anything to get them to go down faster. I heard from somewhere else that you should also suck on a wedge of orange for an hour- or maybe it was half an hour- but there's a limit to how many old wives remedies I'll try."

"Okay, after that banana and vinegar doesn't sound that weird."

Danny chuckled "You should hear some of the stuff other ghosts think I should do. I swear they make even less sense and are a heck of a lot messier."

"Geez, do I even want to know?"

"Probably not." They laughed again, and once more found themselves in that bizarre amicability that, for all intents and proposes, shouldn't be possible. At least as far as Danny was concerned.

"Can I ask you something?" Dash asked suddenly and Danny, pacified by the good mood, answered yes. "Why did you... I mean, like, the way things were left last time, I didn't think you'd come back. It seamed sorta' final. Why'd you show up today?"

"Ah," Danny stalled, bringing a hand up to the back of his neck. The question was certainly an unexpected one, and required a careful answer that Danny hadn't lent any thought to. He had just gone with his gut and came. "I, I um," he started and glanced off. How could he word this without sounding like he already knew Dash? "Well, I guess I came here 'cause I herd you were hurt, and stayed because... I think everyone deserves a second chance." He thought briefly on his parents, and how he hoped that, if he ever got the courage to tell them, they might be okay with a half-ghost for a son, and that they might still love him anyway. Yes, second chance sounded right.

Danny braved a glance to the jock and found him staring contemplatively down at his covers. "Oh." His eye brows creased.

Curse that tone. Curse that face. And curse whatever part of his brain that told Danny to reach right hand out. "How about this, we let bygones be bygones. Friends?"

Dash turned a look at Danny's outstreatched hand as if it had just turned blue. "Friends?" He asked, tearing his eyes away and up to Danny's "You want to be friends with me?"

Danny tried not to smile too wide "C'mon, don't make it awkward." He said, giving his hand a little, expectant wiggle.

Dash grasped it half a second later and shook, still looking humorously awestruck "If I'd known Danny Phantom would ask to be my friend I would have crashed my car ages ago."

Danny mock punched him in the arm, painfully aware of how carful he had to be with Dash's heavily bruised side. It was impossible to tell how far the scratches reached, as the sleeves of the overly large T-shirt fell almost down to his elbows. "It hasn't even been a minute, don't make me regret it already!"

Dash grinned and laughed something bright and impish and oh so happy. It was infectious. Danny unexpectedly found himself relieved for the label to put on his whatever with Dash, 'friends' familiarized the almost uncomfortable feeling bubbling deep in his mind at the sight of Dash's smile. It calmed the turmoil of emotion raised at seeing his tormentor so jovial.

Danny soon left Dash's with plans to return the next day, a smile and wave and a with weight off his shoulders. There was so much going on in his life already, he really didn't need to add teenage drama to the mix. Danny wasn't built to handle rom-com episode plots in his daly life, fighting ghosts was quite enough thank you very much.

Before he arrived at home, Danny made sure to make a quick pitstop by the docks and have a 'conversation' with a certain ghost.

* * *

There was something about having a dry piece of toast for a teacher like Mr. Lancer first period on a Monday that really sucked the joy from life. Danny had always liked English to an extent, and even after the responsibilities of being a part time hero-part time student crashed down on him he'd always managed about a B average. Except for that one time freshman year when he almost failed, but to be fair he'd only just got his powers then.

However Mr. Lancer had the uncanny ability to make anything he talked about sound like monotonous quibble. So it was that Danny found himself staring blankly ahead, their teacher's voice grinding away at the back of his mind, thoughts a million miles away.

Well perhaps not a million miles. Just on the other side of town.

It wasn't so unusual for Danny to be thinking of Dash, was it? It was probably normal. They had only just became friends after all. Friends. Danny never thought he'd be considering Dash so close as to call him a friend, albeit close to Phantom, but friend all the same. Again Danny thought to himself, how he was in part grateful for the label. Because now they could just be friends, and it almost didn't matter that Dash was rude and crass otherwise, because now Danny got to see an entirely different side of him. He got to see how Dash was with, say, Kwan. With his friends.

However, the other part of him burned with curiosity. The conversation he'd accidentally, for it was indeed an accident and Danny would defend that to his grave, overheard brought a wave of questions. And at their very forefront sat _why_. Danny couldn't understand, wondered if he would ever understand, how someone that he discovered to be so nice, could be so horrible. And his surprise! Did he really not register exactly how terrible he was to his peers on a daily basis?

Danny's eyes had drifted around the room as he mused, across the rows of chairs, desks and students. To the front, away, back again. Eventually rounding their way to his right side, where Tucker sat on the desk next to his, and Sam ahead of him.

And yet another part of his mind plagued him. What would they think? What would they say? Would they be alright with it? Probably, right? They had been teasing him for some silly little date, which it most certainly _was not_ , much to Danny's irritation, but that at least meant that they weren't exclusively hostile, didn't it?

As if sensing his eyes on her, Sam turned and met Danny's gaze just as he opened his mouth in a wispy gasp. Her face turned sympathetic.

Danny raised his hand to get Mr. Lancer's attention. The teacher pinned Danny down with one tired look, the look of a man who knew exactly what was about to happen and disliked every bit of it greatly. "Let me guess Mr. Fenton, the bathroom?"

Danny lowered his hand, a light blush creeping up his neck. "Yeah..."

Mr. Lancer reached for a hall pass with great reluctance, and handed it to his student with greater still. "See to it that you actually return to class this time." He said sternly and turned back to his class without giving Danny the chance to reply.

Life would be so much easier if he could just figure it how to split himself in to copies. Properly, none of those two headed mishaps he seemed so good at.

Though the hallway was void of any other students, Danny still ran to the nearest janitor's closet to transform. Paranoia had saved his skin on more than one occasion in the past, and now, almost at the end of his junior year, he wasn't about to slip up. On his way he found a curious green mist creeping across the floor, slowly rounding a corner he passed. Transformed and ready for battle, Danny floated above the mist, carful not to disturb it, and attempted to look for a source.

The mist grew steadily in density, turning in to a thick, light obscuring smog before too long. Danny followed it to the west wing of the school, in the science and math department, upon which he found a jungle of rich plants, blooming in flowers of all shapes and colors, the largest of which seemed to be secreting this gas.

A ghost presented itself to him, some sort of plant thing, Danny guessed it might be something akin to whatever Undergrowth was. "Ah, the halfa I've herd so much about." It said, emerging from a billowing plume of mist. It had an unfortunate screech in it's voice, turning each vowel in to a shrill cry.

Danny crossed his arms. "Great, another new ghost. Let me guess, you want to take over the world or something?"

The ghost sneered, if one could call the vertical slit in its face capable of such an expression. "Insolent child! I see now why you are held in such high contempt."

Danny tried not to roll his eyes too obviously, but honestly he was a teenage boy. Sometimes he couldn't help himself. "Okay so can we maybe fast forward through the whole introduction of you and your obsession so I can get back to class?"

"Very well." It growled "If you are so determined to meet your doom, I shall oblige." It raised it's arms, several flowered vines rising with him. At his command the tentacle like vines shot forward and attacked, chasing Danny and lunging after him as he dodged.

"What, no screaming your name and evil plans at me? I thought you ghosts were in to that!" Danny taunted. It was hard to breath in the thick, humid air but he grinned his signature half-smile regardless. This was the part he liked the most, the banter.

The ghost growled again, fisting its vines for hands. "I am your greatest advisary yet, you know not to whom you speak child!" it screeched, reaching what must have been a new octave. Okay, so maybe it wasn't so big on the banter, but that didn't mean Danny couldn't joke around.

"I dunno', there's a long list of creeps I've had to fight, you might have to get in line for 'the greatest advisary yet'."

One of the vines attacked again, this time succeeding in wrapping around his ankle. Danny cried out, only now realizing that the vines were covered in small, sharp thorns. "I am the poltergeist of perennial!" the ghost yelled in his face, commanding the vine to bring Danny down to the floor. More flowered and oozed their putrid gas. "I am the manes of morass!" Danny broke from the vine's grip, suffering many long and short gashes along his legs, and flew back in to the air, charging a strong iceray. The ghost grunted and commanded again the vines to move towards him yet again, but Danny was ready now. "I am the-"

"The ghost that's gonna' have to cool it down!" Danny yelled and fired, freezing the incoming vines and shattering them quickly with a couple ectoblasts. The ghost cried incoherent fury, this time choosing to fly up and attack Danny directly.

The air was progressively becoming thicker and hotter. Danny tried to resolve the battle as quickly as possible, wanting to get out of the thick vapor as soon as possible. The other ghost was more agile than most, engaging Danny so thoroughly that he didn't even have the chance to unhook the thermos from his belt. Danny didn't know for how long they had fought- couldn't really be more than a few minutes- but his limbs felt weighed down with premature fatigue. He found it steadily harder and harder to fly, fire both ice and ectoblasts, and to phase from oncoming attacks. One of the vines jabbed at his side, sending three long and too deep scratches from the razor sharp thorns across his left line of ribs. Not to mention the bleeding cuts that steadily collected along all four limbs. The other ghost was second by second gaining the upper hand, and they both knew it.

"Succumb ghost child." the ghost insisted when he had Danny's arms pinned securely in front of him, the thrones ripping jaggedly down his torso.

Danny grinned despite the pain and lethargy seeping in to his muscles, making the ghost bristle "Hah. If I can deal with the dandelions in our back yard, I can definitely deal with an ugly pile of weeds like you." Danny delivered a hard kick, landing squarely in the ghost's jaw. He was released and Danny flew the the ground.

As soon as he touched the floor he collapsed on his knees, his legs giving way under his weight. But Danny couldn't lower his guard just yet, he reached to his belt and brought forward the thermos. Sluggish fingers fumbled with the lid, struggling to screw it opened. The ghost was recovering, and Danny desperately clawed at the lid, his hands weren't strong enough, he couldn't grip it properly. Somewhere in the distance Danny thought he herd sirens, but it was hard to tell over the blood pounding in his ears.

The ghost landed without a sound and approached Danny slowly, drawing out each step. Danny's vision swam. It laughed cruelly, and despite it's high pitch, he recognized the crazed notes of almost every evil ghost he'd met in his near three years of heroism. The air felt oppressive, pressing down on his shoulders like a tangible weight. For each stagnant second it grew heavier, and Danny weaker.

The thermos dropped to the ground, Danny following after. The last thing he registered before his human body landed with a heavy thud on the hard linoleum floor was someone calling his name, and the wine of a charging ectoweapon.

* * *

 **I know I'm terrible. Two cliffhangers in row, feel free to hate me. But I do have some good news! The next chapter is halfway-ish done, so it'll probs be up in week as opposed to two. So hey, something to look forward to ^^**

 **As always, reviews are cherished and incouraged! Criticism is appreciated.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: In which Danny and Tucker can't _quite_ figure out how fractions work but bless them they try.

"Danny!"

Who's voice was that?

"Wake up man! Come on!"

Another voice, it sounded urgent. Danny tried to crack open an eye.

"Is he waking up? Danny!" He tried to roll over. It was probably too early for whatever was happening. "Tucker get the bucket."

Too early, and Danny felt tired.

Wait, bucket?

Without warning a splash of icy cold water shocked him from sleep. He jerked up and fell down off whatever he had been lying on, hitting his head on something in the process. He looked around wildly, finding himself in the back of the RV, on the floor, his two best friends standing over him. And soaking wet.

"You're awake!" Sam said, tossing aside the dripping bucket and crouching down to help Danny sit up.

Danny glared at her "And I wonder who's fault that is? A little warning next time."

Sam shook her head head "No time. Listen Danny, long story short, your parents found you out cold in the school when they came to catch the ghost. They'll be back any minute and I can guarantee you that they'll want to run some tests to make sure you're not contaminated or whatever."

Danny's eyes widened. Tucker pulled him up by the hand "Come on man, let's get you out of here before they get back."

They climbed down from the RV with Danny supporting himself on Tucker. Once down Danny gasped at the scene around him. The entire school had been roped off and quarantined, leaving the student body out front to watch. Teachers and parents ushered the teens away, while paramedics from two parked ambuli attended to those few wounded. The RV itself was parked haphazardly, the upturned grass and tire tracks spoke of his father's driving, narrowly missing the flagpole.

Just as the trio was about to make their escape from school grounds, two people, dressed in full bio suits, emerged from the plastic shrouded front entrance. The smaller of the two hurried to removed her visored head guard and her customary blue hood and rushed towards them, the larger following close behind. "Danny!" Maddie cried "You're awake! How are you? Are you hurt anywhere?" Her bare hands, stripped of their gloves the moment she saw her son, were all over his face and in his hair.

Danny brushed off his mother's attentions "I'm fine Mom. No really!"

"Danny we found you unconscious-"

"With a _ghost_!"

"-and we were so worried. Are you sure you're doing okay? The ghost didn't hurt you?" She cupped his face and again Danny, gently now, removed her hands, taking a distancing step back.

"I'm totally fine Mom. Great!"

"You should at least stay so we can make sure the ghost didn't contaminate you."

Danny's sent a panicked glance over his shoulder at his friend's "Uhm, that's probably not necessary. I feel very normal and very not-contaminated. It was probably just the shock, yeah, the shock of seeing a ghost that knocked me out."

Tucker spoke up "You're always warning everybody how dangerous ghosts are, Danny was probably just scared-"

"Yup I was _very_ scared."

He backed away more, bumping in to Sam. She immediately griped his shoulders and began steering him away "Yeah Ms. Fenton, but he looks totally fine now. Besides we were gonna go to my place to study. Bye Mr. and Ms. Fenton!" Tucker ran after them, calling his goodbye as well.

Danny spared a glimpse at his parents through the crowd, they seemed worried, like they always did. But soon they turned and stripped from their white bio suits to discuss something with the principle. Once again absorbed back in to their work, like they always were. He looked at his friends, "So, is anyone gonna' explain why school is covered in plastic and why we're leaving at-" he flipped open his phone "eleven thirty-eight?"

Tucker grinned "Sometimes all this ghost stuff has an upside. Turns out that whatever you were fighting filled the school with some gas that's poisonous to humans, so as soon as your parents showed up they roped off the entire thing and wouldn't let anyone back in."

Sam chuckled "Which means that until they can figure out how to get all of it out, we're off school."

"But they didn't," Danny lowered his voice "see me transform, did they?"

Sam and Tucker looked at each other, Sam said "I don't _think_ so."

"Your Dad came running out and dumped you in the RV, and ran back in." Tucker added "He didn't _look_ like he'd just seen his worst enemy turn in to his son."

"And they probably would have been acting really weird if they actually saw you. They never would have let us run off with you." Danny relaxed, they were probably right. His mother had been worried, but not unusually so, and his Dad had simply stood by. No way they would be so calm after such a realization.

"So," Tucker started, drawing out the word thoughtfully "the school's closed indefinitely, and there's no way three teenagers would _actually_ spend the day studying."

Sam suggested "We could see a movie."

"Hmm, there's nothing good showing now. What about the Nasty Burger?"

Sam rolled her eyes, "Yeah, 'cause half of Casper definitely didn't go there as soon as they got out of school." She turned to Danny "Any ideas Danny?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the sidewalk as they trekked further in to town. "Um, I don't really know." Was it bad that the first thing he thought of doing was going to see Dash? He was just there yesterday, he didn't really need to see the jock so often.

But he kind of wanted to.

"Oh! How about we go explore the Ghost Zone!" Sam exclaimed "We don't usually get a chance to do that, and it's been a while since we've been there!"

Danny cringed "Yeah, but now that my parents have gotten their hands on a ghost, or at least some ghost gas to study, they're not leaving the lab for _days_ , at least."

"Why don't we just get some ice-cream and hand out in the park or something? I don't wanna' just wander around town not doing anything." Tucker said. "There's that little corner store a block from here."

"I like that idea, Danny?"

"Uh, sure." Danny could always go see Dash later. Besides, Kwan was probably there again, and no matter how curious he was, he thought it would be for the best if Dash didn't catch him listening in on them a second time. And he didn't want to run in to Kwan either.

Six minutes later found the trio in the park, ice-cream in hand, sitting on a bench near the large fountain. "And it could control plants and stuff, it used these vines with really sharp thorns to attack me." Danny concluded to Tucker, who sat recording the fight on his PDA, where they kept their own record of ghosts. It didn't take long for the three of them to determine that the Fenton archives were more or less useless.

"It sounds a bit like Undergrowth." Sam said.

"Yeah that's what I thought!"

"I'll put it in the same folder as him and Vortex." Tucker said, fingers still flying over the keys.

"And that gas makes it pretty dangerous, if your parents hadn't come when they did who knows what might have happened to you." Sam added.

"Well," Danny leaned back on the bench and stared up at the sky "you said my parents think that it only affects humans, right? So it's not that bad, I probably just need to be careful about fighting it in an inclosed space."

Sam pursed her lips "But it's still very dangerous, even for you. You're not just half ghost, you're half human too."

Tucker interrupted "Does that mean I should write down half deadly?"

"Tucker!" Sam exclaimed, but she was ignored.

Danny leaned over to point at the screen "Let's put it down for quarter deadly, it only managed to knock me out after all."

"Danny!"

"But Sam made a point about your parents saving your skin. How about a third deadly?"

"Meet me at two fifths?"

Tucker snorted, "And you say you get terrible grades in math."

Sam clasped her face in hands. "You two are incorrigible." But there was smile in her voice all the same. Unfortunately for the good mood, their laughter was interrupted by the second gasp of cool air that day.

Danny, sunk in to bench and tossed his head back, groaning loudly. " _Again_?"

Tucker snickered and Sam placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Are you feeling up to it? After what happened this morning-."

Danny lifted himself from the bench and raised a hand to interrupt her "Nah I'll be fine, let's just get this over with as quickly as possible." As they gathered their things they saw people running, mostly adults with children, too preoccupied with getting their little ones to safety to pay any mind to the three teenagers running _towards_ danger.

At the playground, they found a small green blob of a ghost, no larger than the size of an average dog. Danny ran behind a tree and one white flash later flew out from the other side. As soon as the ghost lay it's little red eyes on him it curled in on itself and barreled towards him. However the aim was off, missing Danny by a wide five feet and hit a swing. The thing uncurled dizzily, stubby hind legs in the air, and cried out what could be assumed was it's equivalent of a groan.

Danny snickered and unhooked the thermos from his belt, "Alright little guy, stay still and this'll be over before you know it." A second from pressing the capture button, he heard one of his friends shout. Danny turned, but not in time to avoid two more ghosts, identical to the first, running him over. On his rough landing the thermos was knocked from his hands, and he felt one of the creatures roll over him again for good measure.

Danny got up quickly, shaking the unsteadiness from his legs as fast as he could, and concentrated on dodging the group of now five ghosts. They attacked from all sides, and though they missed him more than once by a wide girth, the number of them made it difficult to advance in the fight. Between diving and jumping and flipping, Danny cast his eyes around the playground for the thermos.

Eventually he did find it, having rolled almost twenty feet away to the jungle gym. However, his eyes caught something else out of the ordinary, a pair of red converse. Danny followed them up legs clad in blue jeans, over a black shirt and varsity jacket, to blond hair.

Danny growled in frustration. Wasn't he supposed to be in bed recovering? Danny powered up a strong ectoblast and shot it at one of the ghosts, sending it careening back and crashing in to two others. It left him with just enough time to fly over Dash, scooping up the thermos along the way. The moment he landed, a touch ungracefully in his haste, he threw up wide shield, just in time for one of the ghosts to barrel in to it.

Danny tossed his head back, to where Dash stood stiffly behind the jungle gym. "What are you doing here?" He demanded hotly.

"I was out with Kwan and-"

Danny grunted on the impact of yet another of the ghosts "Never mind, just stay put and I'll get back to you."

A third ghost came rolling towards them. Danny counted the seconds carefully, waiting until it was just about to hit the shield before he released the ectoenergy used to create it outward. All the ghosts were tossed backwards, hitting the ground with five heavy thuds. Thermos in hand, Danny flew ten or so feet in the air and pointed it downwards, capturing all of them in one, bright blast.

Danny sunk to the ground, where his friends were already running and met them halfway. He cast a quick glance over to where he knew Dash stood to make sure he was out of eyesight. Tucker spoke first "You okay dude? You were behind that shield for a while."

Danny laughed it off, "Oh yeah, I just needed to catch my breath. Those little suckers were fast."

"Are you sure?" Sam insisted "You were passed out this morning, and that fight took longer than it should have with such small ghosts."

"Careful, or you'll start to sound like Jazz."

"I'm just worried!"

Tucker snickered "'Cause that doesn't sound like Jazz or anything." Both of them received a hard punch.

"Alright alright! We get the point!" Danny conceded, rubbing his arm sorely. If he hadn't managed to get a bruise in the fight he would almost certainly have one now. Looking to change the subject, before they might invoke more of Sam's wrath, he held up the thermos and said "Hey, I'm gonna' go ahead and take this home strait away."

"Right now?" Sam asked and Danny nodded. "Okay... do you want to meet back here after, or we could go to my place and watch a movie?"

"Um, actually I think I have some chores I should do. How about we play DOOMED later?"

Tucker lifted one eyebrow "Danny, we have a Monday off, and you're actually going to spend it on chores?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, "I was supposed to clean the lab yesterday," which was actually true, but they never noticed if he didn't clean it, unless he forgot something important like changing the ectofiltrator "and since Mom and Dad are going to be down there today I should probably do that before they get back."

He tried a smile, but his friends knew his lying face, he wouldn't be able to fool them for long. But he didn't want them to know about his friendship with Dash just yet. Sam pursed her lips. "Okay, if you're sure. We'll chat later."

"See you dude." They waved to each other and the two of them started walking off, back the way the came. Danny flew up and waited until they had rounded the corner before he circled back again. Dash was still waiting, and thankfully still alone. When Danny landed he looked decidedly sheepish.

"Okay," Danny said and crossed his arms "how about you start with telling me why you're here and not at home. I thought you had, like, three brokered ribs and a concussion?"

"Two ribs and a _light_ concussion! I didn't show all the symptoms for a full one." Dash corrected with what Danny thought was his attempt at a placating grin. "Um, anyway, the doctor said that I shouldn't spend all day in bed and that I should try walking around a little bit, so when Kwan called- oh Kwan's my best friend from school- he said that he was taking his little sister to the playground I figured I could tag along."

Danny sighed "And of course you can't really run with brokened ribs, can you?"

Dash's half smile probably meant yes. "His sister is terrified of ghosts, so I told them to get out of here, and that's about the time you showed up anyway so I knew I'd be fine."

Danny didn't miss the compliment, and he tried not to let it groom his ego _too_ much. "Well, I guess that's fine then." He uncrossed his arms and approached Dash "Come on, I'll take you home."

Dash took a step back "Uh, actually I'm feeling pretty sore, so I figured I'd just stay here a while and walk back, it's only a few minutes after all."

Danny smiled, "Don't worry about it, a five minute walk is a one minute flight. I can take you home." Before Dash had the chance to protest Danny scooped him up bridal style and used some of his ectoenergy to create a small platform in his arms, so that Dash might lie more comfortably.

Dash yelped, and grabbed on to Danny's neck and arms in surprise, blushing deeply. It was perhaps petty, picking up a macho quarterback like a girl and openly laughing at it, but Danny thought he deserved a little payback. Even if it came in the form of teasing. "Hold on tight." He said, and took off.

* * *

 **So here we are! A week early as promised ^^ Hope you enjoyed it! Next chapter's gonna' be a whole lot of friendship fluff so look forward to that! As always, I love reading your reviews, even if they're "just" little short ones! So please write one! See you two weeks!**

 **Criticism is always appreciated!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: In which Danny joins the asshole club.

Two sensations made themselves overwhelmingly and quite painfully present. The first, was the way Dash was squishing all the air from Danny's lungs with a white-knuckled chokehold around his neck. The poor guy looked rather tense, it couldn't be very good for his recovery. The second, but most certainly not least by any standard, was a surprising high pitched scream filling his ears.

Danny hadn't expected Dash could ever make a sound like that.

Danny paused in his ascent and waited for Dash to notice they weren't moving anymore. If anything he yelled louder and squeezed his eyes shut tighter. " _Hey_!" Danny barked, hoping it would reach Dash over his own voice. It did, but failed to make the jock actually look at him. "I'm not gonna drop you y'know. You _can_ open your eyes."

Dash didn't answer.

"If it makes you feel any better, I've only dropped two people before."

Dash's eyes flew open in a dark and utterly petrified glare. " _WHAT_?" He screeched.

A small, devious grin crawled its way over Danny's lips. He shouldn't. He really shouldn't. He continued flying and said "Oh yeah, didn't you hear about it? All over the news."

" _Are you shitting me_?"

Danny took a little dip, pretending to lose his balance "Oopse!" Dash's choke and scream made their return with a vengeance, although he immediately pulled back again with a hiss and a shaking hand on his chest. "Are you okay?" Danny asked quickly, worried he may have taken it too far.

"What do you think asshole? _Put me down_!" Dash had screwed his eyes shut again, and Danny could feel the wild heartbeat between their chests. He wondered briefly whether Dash could feel _his_ heart, and if that would make him suspicious as to why a ghost had a pulse.

"Geez, kiss your mother with that mouth?" He joked, hoping it might lighten the tone some.

" _Fuck you_!" Or not.

"Alright alright. Look your house is right over there, I can see it." Danny held on to Dash a touch tighter, worried that he might actually drop him of he were to spazz too violently. Once on the ground Dash dropped ungracefully on the front porch and hobbled through the doors. He left them wide open in his wake, and Danny decided to take that as a sign that he probably wasn't completely unwelcome. Despite Dash's refusal to so much as look at him.

Danny watchfully tailed Dash a few inches off the floor, after closing the front doors after him, to where the jock had collapsed in one of the plush, tastefully pillowed couches of the living room, a hand still on his chest. Dash cracked open an eye when he herd Danny land softly, and in it Danny found annoyance and anger. Restrained anger.

Danny tried to conceal the automatic flinch, and was mostly successful, yet he feared he hadn't kept it all off his face. Those were the eyes of a Dash that was in a terrible mood and decided to take it out on the first unfortunate nerd he happened to see. This wasn't a Dash that Phantom knew, nor had been been at school in a week to plague Fenton. Danny was surprised that it had taken such short time to have forgotten him.

Suddenly sheepish in the face of this scowling reminder, he said carefully "Um, can I get you anything?"

Dash sighed and looked away. Danny thought he might not answer, and even made to leave, when Dash called over his shoulder "There's an ice pack in the freezer. Middle drawer."

Sure enough, middle drawer, Danny found an ice pack approximately the size of a dinner plate. Danny circled the kitchen once and grabbed a baby blue dish towel from it's place hanging over the oven handle, folding it down the length and wrapping it around the ice on his way back.

Dash wouldn't look him in the eyes, again, nor did he say anything beyond a curt 'thanks', yet he seemed grateful all the same. When he pressed the ice to his chest his shoulders sank in relief, exhaling his tension. Danny floated over to the couch's armrest furthest from Dash and settled in the air over it, legs crossed.

Dash looked at him again, but now his eyes were so much softer. Apparently Dash was making an effort to calm himself. "What time is it?" he asked.

"Oh um," Danny leaned back enough to peer through the double width archway to the kitchen and at the clock hanging over the back door, "almost quarter past twelve."

Dash leaned his head back and closed his eyes again "Time for my medication then."

"You take medication?" Danny asked curiously.

Dash turned to him with an odd expression "Yeah of course I do, I broke two ribs Danny." He adjusted the ice pack slightly.

"Oh yeah, of course." Danny's hand found the back of his neck "Can I get it for you? So you don't have to get up again?"

"That'd be nice." Dash answered "It's on the counter next to the coffee machine."

"How many?" Danny called, already halfway to the kitchen.

"Just one."

Danny found the little orange pillbox and pored a small handful in his cupped palm, dipping the surplus back in. "Where are the glasses?" Danny asked, opening and closing random cabinets.

"Cabinet over the sink."

"Got it." Danny returned to the living room a moment later, pill in one hand and full glass in the other. Again Dash seemed relived and again offered a 'thanks', although now it seemed the warmth that returned to his eyes had managed to creep down in to his voice as well. Danny tried a smile, and was elated to have it returned, if a little wobbly. "Sorry about just now," he said as Dash swallowed his pill "I guess I forget how long it takes for normal people to heal."

Dash looked it him curiously, "How long does it take for you anyway? You get tossed in to buildings and stuff all the time, but you always seem fine the next day."

Danny took his seat above the armrest again, despite the fact that he wasn't actaully seated. "Well, if I was as hurt as you are, probably two or three days at the most. I dunno, it's not like I've ever gone to the doctor or anything to have an X-ray, but it's usually only really painful for like, the first half day. After that I'm usually only kinda sore." Dash adjusted the ice pack again "Are you sure you're okay?"

Dash grinned, like Danny's distress over his wellbeing was somehow funny. "A little sore, s'all. Just warn me next time you feel like kidnapping me, okay?"

"I didn't kidnap you."

"And you're not pouting either."

Danny's lip curled "I'm not pouting!"

Again, Dash had the gaul to face Danny with that aggravatingly charming expression. "Alright fine, you're not." He laughed, and Danny was sure he caught something like 'not anymore' said under his breath. "Hey, so, I dunno if you do this often, but do you wanna' maybe see a movie?... or something?" Dash motioned to the large TV mounted on the wall across the couch, complete with two impressive speakers on either side, all nestled inside a what was possibly, probably, a custom shelf built around the system. Lining the bottom shelves were two rows of DVD's and to the far right and left there were closed cabinets and drawers. Danny was willing to bet that in them there were all sorts of gadgets hidden away. Dash's house seemed the type to have a plethora of miscellaneous what-nots tucked away.

"I thought you said the doctor said no TV and stuff?"

"Only through the weekend. She said that if my headaches got better by Monday I could watch stuff again." Dash said with a bright smile. "Y'know, so I don't go crazy from boredom."

"Well," Danny said as he leisurely floated over to the DVDs "that would imply that you're not already crazy." A pillow landed squarely in his back for the comment, but when he turned around Dash had busied himself with looking very innocent, intently examining something on the ceiling. And whistling. Because it was common knowledge that in any and all situations, whistling is the least conspicuous thing a person could do.

"Funny," Danny said slowly "didn't think someone who's so hurt would have such good aim." It was, after all, something close to ten feet from the couch to the TV, without upper body mobility Dash could have easily missed.

"Hmm, what?" Dash said distractedly, "I _am_ hurt. A ghost probably threw that."

Danny grinned. Fine, he'd bite. "Oh really? And somehow I didn't notice a pillow throwing ghost wander in to your house?"

To Dash's respect, he had managed to keep an almost convincing strait face. "I guess not. Ghosts super are dangerous and sneaky you know."

"Especially when they go around making people throw very dangerous pillows."

"I thought I just said that wasn't me."

Danny floated higher in the air and imitated his Dad's signature 'scary fingers'. "It could have _overshadowed you_." he said theatrically.

That drew Dash's eyebrows together "Overshadowed?"

Danny floated closer still, stoping just in front of Dash and hovering over him menacingly. Or as menacing as a seventeen year old could manage to be. "It's when a ghost goes inside you and _controls your entire body_! _Oooooo_ ~" Dash snorted "You may laugh human, but it feels _really freaking weird_!"

Dash coughed to cover a laugh, and tried to straiten his face. To little avail, but points for trying. "It's sounds so terrifying! I'm shaking in my shoes!"

A devious smirk flitted across Danny's face as he circled around the couch to behind Dash. "I can show you if you'd like."

Dash turned halfway to look at Danny with a deeply suspicious frown. "What do you mean 'show me'?"

"I'll show you what overshadowing feels like. It won't hurt." Sam and Tucker had assured him so.

"Okay... I'm not gonna' get trapped in a mirror or anything like you did, right?"

"Well I don't see any mirrors nearby." Danny laughed at Dash's visibly paled face. "It's fine dude, I don't know how Poindexter did that, and even if I could, I wouldn't."

Dash pursed his lips. "Allright, go a head." he said slowly, turning back again and settling in to the couch, presumably bracing himself. Though it didn't go amiss that he kept a close eye on Danny through his peripherals.

Danny leaned closer again, so much so that the sides of their heads brushed against each other. He secured a hand on Dash's one shoulder and said "Try not to spazz too much, we don't want you getting even more hurt." He was too close to see Dash's face, but it felt warm when the jock nodded.

Danny turned one arm intangible and slipped it inside Dash's free hand, settling in up to the elbow. He felt Dash draw away and his pulse spike. "Ready?"

"I guess." Slowly, he pulled Dash's fingers inwards in a fist and then flexed them, repeating the motion twice. He could feel Dash resisting him, could feel him tensing his muscles and curling away from the invisible touch. "Jesus Christ, that _is_ weird."

Danny chuckled. "Try to relax." Dash did, but only marginally so. Danny lifted the arm, and waved it a couple times in front of its owner's face. Dash laughed nervously and his pulse rose again. "You done?" Danny asked, aware of Dash's obvious discomfort.

"Uh, yeah. Actually." He answered with a nervous laugh. Danny couldn't help but grin, call it old habit, but there was something immensely satisfying in making Dash Baxter uncomfortable. Provided he wasn't in any _real_ danger that is. "Do that often?"

"What, overshadow people?" Danny hopped over the couch and the coffee table, landing once again at the base of the shelf surrounding the TV. "Not if I can help it. You think it felt weird on your end? Well it's pretty funky for me too. Although..." Danny peered at Dash through the corner of his eye.

"I'm not sure I like that look."

Danny snorted. "No I just remembered the other time I overshadowed you."

Dash's eyes bulged. "You've done that _before_? _And I didn't notice?_ "

"No no, it wasn't really you. Remember when I told you about Nocturne?" Danny was fairly sure he'd mentioned the ghost when he and Dash first met up. "Well, to beat him I needed to wake up a few people, and one them was dreaming about school, and her class. So to scare her awake I overshadowed dream-you and turned you in to 'Dash Phantom'." He raised his hands in quotation. Thinking back to Sam's reaction, he smiled fondly "I think her face was the funniest when she woke up."

"Wait wait, 'Dash Phantom'?" Dash said, his face a war between discontent and curiosity over the hilarity of the notion of Dash Phantom "How did that even work?"

"Uh," how was he supposed to explain his transformation while leaving out what he transforming _from_ "...dream logic?"

"No, I meant, what did I, er, dream-me look like? Just now, my hand still looked the same."

"Oh. Um, imagine you, in my outfit with like, white hair and green eyes and stuff." Danny said. He hadn't ever actually seen 'Dash Phantom' for himself, but Sam had made sure to describe the ordeal in great detail, eager to insure her friends suffered the trauma alongside her.

Dash laughed "I can't decide whether that's really cool or just wrong."

"I'm gonna side with wrong, at least that's what Sa-" Danny stopped himself short, the vowel carrying on awkwardly. "-she." he corrected. "That's what she thinks." Hopefully Sam was so engraved in Dash's mind as 'Manson' that he wouldn't connect the dots. Danny abruptly crouched down to the bottom shelves again, making himself busy with the rows of DVDs. "Anyway, what do you feel like watching? You've got a lot of horror movies here, they're always entertaining. Or we could go with a comedy if day-time horror isn't your thing."

"Um, I'm good with a horror movie. We can just close the blinds."

"Okay, anything in particular you wanna' watch?"

"Just pick something."

Danny turned around again at the sound of shuffling. Dash was getting up, apparently with some effort. "Oh no you can just sit! I'll get it started." Danny said, springing up.

Dash waved him off. "Nah I hate sitting still, and the pain killer's starting to work anyway so I'm fine. You get the movie started, I'm gonna' go make some popcorn." Dash hobbled around the couch and in to the kitchen, disappearing from sight. Danny stared after him for a moment, watching the wide and empty archway. From around the corner Danny heard sounds, cabinets being opened and closed, ceramics, bowls most likely, clinking against each other.

Danny couldn't quite wrap his head around his interactions with Dash. One minute they'd be chatting like they'd known each other for years, which in a sense they had. The next they were awkward first-time friends, complete strangers. Which in a completely different sense they still were. In so many ways Danny was getting to know Dash for the first time, with all the tribulations and stepping on each others toes that came with that. Having always had a small group of friends, Danny found that hard to maneuver.

And yet there was something in Dash's face that, despite everything, made it easy. Made it worth it.

When Dash entered the living room again and sank in to his place on the couch, he asked "Whah you ose?"

Danny pushed the DVD receiver closed and smirked at the jock's face full of popcorn. "Seriously couldn't wait, like, two minutes until it started?"

Dash made a show chewing and swallowing before asking again, with deliberate enunciation "What did you chose?"

"Evil Dead." a classic.

"Nice."

Danny floated backward lazily, navigating the movie's menu as he did. He gently in landed, settling on the other side of the large bowl of popcorn, propped by a pillow, nestled in the slight dip in between the two couch cushions. He tried not to shift too much as the movie played, both mindful of Dash's comfort and his own. Actually sitting down for so long in his ghost form, without floating or doing anything, felt a little unnatural.

An hour and half filled with happy commentary turned on to three, and then six, without either of them noticing, or caring. Their movies veered to the supernatural, Danny pointing out all the ways ghosts would never do or say what whatever they were doing and saying on screen. Dash joined him, despite his limited knowledge, without missing a beat. The afternoon blinked by, and only once the sun was low enough that it managed to shine it's blinding early-evening rays through the sliver where the curtains met, in to the eyes of the two teenagers, did they register how late in to evening it had gotten.

A realization of just how absorbed they had gotten with each other, and embarrassment over themselves brought Danny to Dash's backdoor, it offering more privacy than the front one. "I had a great time today." Danny said, hovering so that he could levelly meet Dash's eyes "I hope your friend wasn't too upset about you ditching him."

Dash smiled "Nah he was fine. Had his sister to calm down so he probably wouldn't have had a chance to come back anyway." Danny returned the smile, and fought a warmth off his cheeks that probably had everything to do with the orange late-spring sun. He sent a silent prayer of thanks to whatever deity decided to give him powers over the cold. "So, when can I see you again?" The words of his friends came back to him. Well, a word beginning with certain fourth letter of the alphabet that Danny thought was utterly absurd. And the very picturesque situation in no way resembled the end of one.

"Maybe this weekend?"

Dash grinned, a cheery lopsided thing that warmed his face "Great! How about Friday? We could meet in that little place in the park I showed you?"

Danny lifted further in the air so that he floated almost a head taller "I'll see you there." and he zoomed upward.

* * *

 **Hi! Sorry for the long wait (｡-_-｡) I won't wast your time by telling you some long excuse about this and that so take heart that it'll be back on track to every other Thursday now. But on a side note can I get some love for an entire chapter that almost exclusively diologue? That was waaaay harder to do than I anticapeted. Like wow. I really hope they're in character? Please tell me I'm not terrible?**

 ***PLEASE READ***

 **In these six chapters I'm sure you've noticed that it's all in Danny's POV. For consistency's sake I'm going to keep doing that, but unfortunetlyey that means it excludes the other characters POV, and Dash's is one I find myself often wishing I could write and publish. So because of that I think I'll publish a bonus chapter at the very end including all these little drabbles, since I've written a few already. They're nothing big, but it's a fun little insight in to everyone else's minds ^^**

 **Anyway, if anyone has a particular little scene in mind, even ones where Danny isn't present, that they'd like to read, feel free to leave a review or send a PM asking me and I'll probs write it ^^**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: In which Vlab the sneak boi enters.

Danny was in a decidedly chipper mood Friday morning. His week, like his life, had been a thrilling yo-yo of ups and downs. The school had been closed for three days, however the teachers had been lightning fast in assigning extra homework via e-mail. His parents had been consumed with their work on the new sample and adapting the ghost-sucker to fumigation, so they kept to themselves in the lab for the most part, and out of Danny's trajectory. Although now they were on the look out for ghosts to test on, and to tear apart molecule by molecule. And it didn't take a very long stretch of the imagination to guess which of the regular ghosts they were on the look out for _especially_. He'd been out with Sam and Tucker patrolling and looking for their newest ghost enemy every night, which was fine when they didn't have classes in the morning, but they still hadn't found him by the end of the week, and he wasn't the type they could let slip through the cracks.

Dash still wasn't back in school, and... Dash still wasn't back in school.

But Friday was shaping up to be an excellent day. Sam and Tucker hadn't been suspicious of Danny in the least, or at least they hadn't shown it if they were. There hadn't been a single ghost incident all day, not even one of the little ones. And in addition to the weekend being only a few hours away, Danny would get to see Dash again, something that he was looking forward to more than expected.

So of course, by law of Danny's yo-yo life, a good day had to come down hard and fast, this time in the form of a food fight. He might've been able to simply phase from the food, but of course the A-listers had made a special point of targeting Danny, 'for their fallen comrade'. So instead Danny did what the majority of suspicious-looking-goo covered teens did, changed in to his gym clothes and raced home home for a clean shift as soon as the final bell rung.

And this of course meant that he had the delight of meeting the guest of his parents.

If asked, Danny would of course say that he loved his Mom and Dad, because he did. But he'd also be the first to admit that they were extremely odd. And for any child growing up even a little odd is too much. Both their occupation and less than small personalities considered, it wasn't really all the unexpected that they had very few friends. None, in fact. Which naturally made guests at their house few and far between.

So when Danny entered his front door and made to go upstairs, only to be interrupted by his mother calling "Danny dear? Is that you? Come to the kitchen, we have company." his first thought went to-

"V-Man! Danny-boy's grown so tall! He'll be just like his ol' man one day!"

Three adults sat at the kitchen table with three cups of coffee in front of them, not that one could actually see much of the table itself. Of course in the Fenton household a strange motley of probably dangerous green ooze, tools, and whatever invention wasn't working that week spread over the common spaces was perfectly normal. Today however it seemed his parents had made a lovely centerpiece of some strange gas mask looking prototype, framed by filters, cylinders of bizzare looking liquid an de ectoplasm, and a whole family o for odd shaped pipes and toobs.

Vlad shifted in his chair, far too close to Danny's mother, who seemed to be mid explanation of the gas mask thing, to look the teenager in the eyes. "Yes Jack I can see that. Getting stronger by the day I imagine." As always, there was something horribly feral is his smile that only Danny ever seemed to notice. Perhaps it was in the way his lip lifted just enough for a hint of contempt to shine through a thin veil of amicability.

Danny scowled at Vlad, knowing full well he couldn't intimidate the man and still trying anyway. That was, after all, how things always went between them. "Strong enough to take you on."

"Danny," his Mom admonished "be polite to our guest."

Without looking away from his arch enemy Danny said "I'm going to my room." and turned on his heel.

In his wake, sounds of chairs being pushed back and voices followed him up the stairs. "Oh dear Maddie, I wonder if I said anything to upset the boy."

"He's just being a teenager Vlad, no need to get up. I'll check on him later."

"All the same I think I'll go talk with him. No no, I insist, it would be my pleasure."

Depending on how one might choose to look at the smartly dressed interruption of Danny's yo-yo life, one could conclude that it was, in all actuality, a rather fortunate chance meeting. For it gave the the young hero some warning that Vlad might be planning something, because he was always planning something when he made the effort to visits the Fenton household, as was always advantageous when involved with Plasmius. That said, a talk with Plasmius was very, very rarely just a talk with Plasmius.

Danny raced to his room, hearing footsteps climbing the stairs after him, unwilling to let himself be caught by his parents halfway to the second floor in ghost form. Just as his doorknob turned, Danny transformed and assumed a fighting stance facing the entrance, ready for whatever the elder halfa might do.

"Why Daniel my boy, no need for such hostility. I'm sure you heard me say I just wanted to talk." Vlad said as he walked in, closing the door behind him.

"What do you want Plasmius." Though phrased like a question, it sounded like a demand.

Vlad put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the door. Danny's eyes narrowed at the overly casual motion, something so fundamentally un-Vlad. He had to be up to something. Vlad smirked "Oh the same things I always want little badger. I don't suppose you've considered renouncing your father any more since our last meeting?"

"You mean when you tried to infect my class, my teachers and my friends with some weird ghost virus? Because no, no I haven't." Danny remembered the incident well, everyone had started exhibiting ghostly qualities, not unlike the time when Spectra tried to fashion herself a new body, or when Vlad had infected his friends with ecto-acne.

Vlad busied himself with picking a stray piece of lint from his suit. "Yes it was so lucky that those friends of yours had the the cure. What are they called again? The Far Frozen I think?"

"None of your business! Why are you here Plasmius?" Danny yelled.

"And speaking of ghosts," Vlad continued as if the outburst had never happened "Your wonderful mother has been telling me all about a new ghost that entered your school earlier this week. Apparently you were found unconscious, we're all ever so worried about you. Do tell your Uncle Vlad what happened." Vlad pushed himself off the wall and Danny fought the urge to take a step back, his fists glowed faintly green. "Now Daniel put those away. You're almost eighteen, I would have hoped you'd grown beyond this childishness by now."

Danny growled "Don't come any closer! My parents are right downstairs and they'll be here in second if they hear a fight."

Vlad smirked "Exactly. And what, little badger, do you think they will find, hmm? Their dear old friend, and mayor of their town lest we forget, being attacked by none other than Amity Park's notorious and _dangerous_ Ghost Boy? I suggest you transform back."

Danny's eyes flickered to the floor, under which was the kitchen and presumably his parents still. Danny loathed to admit it, but Vlad was perhaps right. He, with visible reluctancy, called back his ghost powers, leaving his human half behind. "Alright Vlad," Danny said, making no effort to hide the aggression in his voice "tell me what you're doing here, in my house, talking with my parents. What game are you playing this time."

"Game? No game Daniel." Vlad said off handedly, moving across the room to Danny's desk. He picked the left wing of a model spaceship Danny had been working on the other day with idle curiosity. As the man moved, Danny stepped aside tensely, ready to jump in to action the moment Vlad tried anything, if the man attacked first, the threat of his parents finding them could be damned. "Is it really so surprising that I should want to check in on you? After all, you did lose consciousness in a fight, and a weed like that should have been a breeze considering how many other ghosts you've bested through the years."

Danny's ego didn't miss the jibe. "Like you could've done any better! It had poisonous gas!"

Neither did Danny miss the smirk and the way the man's eyes shone brightly with an interest that had nothing to do with the wing he flipped this way and that in his fingers. "Daniel do we really need to re-establish which of us is the more capable ghost? Although I suppose I can admit defeat if we were to ask which is the better hero. I certainly wouldn't have stopped to save any civilians."

"That's because you're an evil, lonely old man!" Danny all but yelled, frustration starting to get the better of him. Normally by now Vlad and he would have started fighting in earnest, and Danny would be able to expend his anger trying to get a hit in. But how could he now? Between his parents in the room below and Plasmius' insufferably casual attitude Danny couldn't really do a thing.

"Little badger you wound me." Vlad put a hand to his chest, the motion hurt, yet that did little to hide the snide mockery lacing his voice. "Do you really think I'm that lonely, I only just recently made a new friend. Oh wait," he finally put the wing down and fully faced Danny "that would be _you_."

Danny's ghost powers flared around his tightly fisted hands anew, his eyes burning in tandem "How do you know about Dash?" he growled.

"Daniel, surely you're not so daft as to be unaware of how juvenile your attempts at secrecy are? I know everything I need to know about young Mr. Baxter."

"Don't you dare try to do anything to him or I'll-"

"You'll what Daniel? Give me the scary eyes?"

"You just keep him out of this! He has nothing to do with ghosts!"

"Keep him out of this? Are you afraid he'll get hurt, hmm?" Vlad towered over him. True that Danny had experienced certain growth spurts since fourteen, but even then the man was still a loathfull half-head taller.

"He doesn't know about anything!" Danny felt as if he was backed in to a corner, desperately trying to find something to make Dash uninteresting to Vlad, not worth the effort. The last thing he wanted was someone new getting dragged in to his world and get hurt. Or in Dash's case even more hurt. "He doesn't know about me or you or anything so you can't use him."

"You haven't told him?" Vlad asked, something in his face and posture that Danny didn't like and couldn't identify. "Well, I suppose that-"

Vlad was interrupted by a knock on the door. Danny quickly dispelled his ectoenergy just as Maddie stuck her head in and said "I know you boys are in the middle of talking but dinner's ready, Vlad you're welcome to stay and eat with us if you'd like."

Vlad smiled something hideous and feral "Madeline I would love to."

Danny pushed past both Vlad and his mother, tossing a gruff "I'm not hungry." over his shoulder. The sentence was punctuated by a comically well timed stomach growl, but he ignored it along with his father at the bottom of the staircase. Without looking back at the three adults Danny exited the house as fast as possible. Angry and frustrated, Vlad was last person he wanted to underhandedly exchange insults with during a meal that was probably poisonous to his ghost half anyway. Subtlety was Vlad's suit and Danny couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't punch the smug bastard right in the kisser. Hard.

A second after rounding a corner in to an alley his phone was out and a message sent to his best friends, asking to meet him at their favorite fast food joint. One second more brought the teen flying through the clouds in a vain effort to clear his mind. His ghost sense and the subsequent ectopi brought Danny a much needed vent for a little excess energy.

Danny flew over the park, in hot pursuit of the ghosts. He didn't bother to look down, didn't want to see Dash at the moment, if the jock was even still there. He was angry and frustrated and very not in the mood to play happy friends with his bully.

"What happened?" Sam exclaimed once Danny roughly shoved in to the opposite couch of the booth his friend sat at. It being after school on a Friday, The Nast Burger was packed full of teenagers, and the only seats Sam could score were two tables down from the bathrooms. If the three trays of food was an indication, Sam had arrived first and already gotten each of them their usual orders.

"Vlad." Danny said sullenly, as if the singular name told the whole story.

In a sense, it must have, because Sam leaned back in her seat with a small "Ah."

Last to arrive, with his nose in his PDA, Tucker asked "What's up man? Seemed _sorta_ ' desperate."

"Vlad." Sam and Danny answered in chorus.

"Yay, new poisonous ghost, end of year exams and now _Vlad_. This is the start of an awesome summer you guys." Tucker put away his device and slid in next to Danny. "Aw sweet! Food's already here. Wait," he prodded his burger suspiciously and lifted its bun "this isn't one of those veggie burgers, is it?"

Sam threw her hands up "I try to get you to eat a vegetable _one time_ and you act like I broke a law!"

"You maybe didn't break a law," Tucker said dramatically "but you did break my heart." He sniffled for good measure.

"Guys!" Danny cut in "Focus!"

Sam roller her eyes "One, that's meat Tucker, so congratulations, four cows were probably slaughtered in the making of that paddy. Two, Danny what did Vlad do this time?"

Danny leaned back, tucked in to his own burger and explained "Nothing much, yet, but he's definitely planning something. I came home today and there he was, in the kitchen talking with Mom and Dad about some invention. And then-"

"What invention?"

Danny thought back "I dunno', I didn't get a very good look. The machine they used to fumigate the school was there, and a couple guns and tracking devices I think. A little bit of everything I guess. Anyway, Vlad's there, and he's acting like he normally does and I got angry, so I go upstairs and then Vlad _follows_ me because he, and I quote 'just want's to talk'."

"Since when does Vlad ever just want to talk?" Tucker asked around his food.

"That's what I thought! But like I said, he's definitely planning something, because as soon as he gets upstairs he started asking about that new ghost and-" Danny stopped himself, before he said Dash.

"... And?" Sam prompted.

But Sam and Tucker never got to hear the end of that sentence, they were cut off by a bang loud enough to make all the Nasty Burger patrons stop and turn to the entrance. There they found none other than Dash Baxter, sporting a particularly foul expression. He stood in the doorway, one hand holding the heavy glass door against the wall, presumably the slamming of which having made the noise. A small parade of jocks, Kwan curiously absent, walked in. A trio, one of which a cheerleader, went for the counter while the remaining four followed their quarterback as he waded through the tables.

They stopped at a large table by a window, staring down the group sitting there until they moved. Once cleared Dash sank heavily in to the nearest chair, followed by the others. Soon they were joined by those with the food, having pushed by the lines to get served promptly.

Dash lifted a hand to his chest, using the other one to brace himself against the table. Danny doubted that many, if any at all, in his company noticed how he slouched to one side, the slight wince as he sat down, or the fact that even after settling in his chair he kept his hand on his chest tensely. One jock laughed at something and roughly elbowed Dash in the arm. His eyes bulged for a second before he saved face and laughed along with them. No, Danny didn't think that they noticed. Or if they did they didn't care.

Dash's eyes swept the room then, meeting Danny's for a brief moment. Ha sneered and turned away quickly, leaving Danny still staring at the side of his blond head. There were remnants of brusing there, but it looked like they had more or less cleared up. However the bandage over the side of his jaw, underwhich was the stitched cut, was still in place.

"Yo, Earth to Danny. You're not an astronaut yet." A dark hand waved in front of his face, and he turned back to see his friends looking on with concern. "Yo ok man?"

Danny shook his head "Ugh, yeah I'm fine. Just, y'know, tired and stuff. Mom and Dad have been going on about that weed ghost and we still haven't caught it yet and I guess I'm just tired." He rubbed a hand over his face. Danny didn't miss the looks Sam and Tucker shot each other, but he couldn't be bothered to decipher them.

"Well," Sam started "we've looked pretty much everywhere there's plants. The park, the woods to the south of town, the lake. Even the zoo. D'you think it might be moving around and that's why we haven't found it yet?"

Tucker, with some effort, managed to talk around stuffing the last of his burger in his mouth and chewing "We 'ould ty spli'ing up."

Sam frowned "We could try chewing finished before speaking."

Tucker rolled his eyes but complied nonetheless. "You cool with that Danny?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "But what if you guys run into it and I'm not there? I don't want you getting hurt because I couldn't protect you."

It was Sam's turn to roll her eyes "Danny we've been fighting alongside you since we were fourteen and you say that literal exact sentence every time some new creep shows up. I think you can maybe trust us now. And besides, if we wear the Specter deflectors we'll be fine."

"Yeah but, it still has that gas, and you heard my parents, it's toxic to humans. I don't want you guys fighting it when I'm not there _and dying_." His hand found his neck again "Maybe I can go back to trying to clone myself. I _did_ manage it a couple of times. Sorta'."

Sam frowned "It's still toxic to you though."

"Half toxic."

"We don't know that. And besides half toxic is still toxic so we're all in danger so we might as well help each other out, _like we always have_."

That seamed to be then end of the matter, as far as Sam was concerned, and considering that someone had just exited the bathroom leaving a particularly putrid smell behind Danny thought it might be his cue to leave. "Fine." he said and stood "but I'm taking the lake, it's the biggest hotspot besides town."

"Whatever floats your boat." Sam waved him off, standing as well. "But I call dibs on the zoo."

"No way I'm taking the woods. There's too little light and too much nature to run away quickly." Tucker added, falling in step behind his friends as they wove their way around the tables to the door.

"Of course running away is your first priority."

"I like to think of it more as enthusiastically protecting my babies." Tucker patted a loving hand on his pocket, PDA safely tucked away inside. "So what do we do now? I'm kinda' feeling the arcade."

Sam smirked "Or we can test run the new speaker upgrade in our cinema that Grandma wanted."

" _Niiice_."

"Danny?"

Danny started. "Hmm? What?" Danny turned from where he'd been watching the popular table. They were getting overly loud and people were shooting them dirty looks.

Sam pursed her lips and sighed. "You, me, Tuck, movie. My place. New speakers, _hello_!" They had stopped by the entrance so Sam could look her friend properly in the face. "You've been really spacey lately, Danny. What's up with you? You're even worse than Tucker."

" _Hey_!"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck "Sorry guys, just been really busy lately, y'know?"

"No, actually we don't know. Care to share with your best friends?" She gave him a sharp questioning look. She hadn't really noticed anything had she? Surely he hadn't been _that_ bad at hiding?

"Uuuh,"

"To be fair," Tucker cut in "I haven't noticed Danny acting strange."

"You spend half your waking hours with your nose in your PDA, your opinion is invalid." Sam chided. She turned again to Danny, raising her eye brows in a silent 'Well?'

Again, Danny resorted to a drawn out "Uuuh..."

"Whatever" Sam threw her hands up in exasperation. "Keep your little secret, you're a terrible liar anyway so we'll figure it out at some point." And with that she pushed though doors leaving the boys to follow after.

Danny, knowing Sam as well as he and Tucker did, knew for a fact that was certainly not the last he had heard on the matter.

* * *

 **Hi! Good to be back after the summer! Also good night to be back on regular updating scedual so look forward to that!**

 **And thanks again for all the amazing reviews, I love love love hearing from you so please keep writing them! As always criticism is appreciated!**

 **Also side note, it's so much fun writing Vlad oh my god I love it.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: In which Dash and Danny start to open up about their ~feelings~ ... at least a little bit. It's a start okay, they're trying.

The following parole was frustratingly uneventful. Besides the regular small fry, there was neither hide nor hair of the ghost they had come to affectionately call The Weed. Danny remembered it being rather flamboyant in its self introduction, using no less than three names, none of which Danny had bothered to remember but that was besides the point.

Midnight came and went, the night slow. Minute by minute dragged by until finally at ten to one the trio conceded that they probably wouldn't be finding the ghost that night either.

"Maybe it's already left town?" Tucker's voice crackled through the earpiece.

Sam snorted "Yeah, a powerful ghost decided to leave Amity Park on its own."

"But we've checked the town _every night_ since it showed up, and it's basically disappeared. Maybe after Danny passed out it decided that Danny Phantom wasn't worth the effort and left."

Danny smacked a mosquito, leaving a small smear across his arm. "I guess we can always hope. I mean we really haven't seen it or any sign that it might have stuck around."

"Hmm." was all Sam answered.

Suddenly Tucker yelped, the sound followed by a shaky "Hey."

"Tucker?"

"Um, just, y'know. Doing stuff, in the middle of the night. In the park?" Tucker continued on as if Sam had never spoken. "Oh wait you dropped- Ow!"

"Tucker!" Both Sam and Danny yelled in their Fenton phones. "What's going on? Who's there?" Danny pressed, already speeding over the water. For him, it was a full ten minutes from the lake just on the outside of the suburbs to the center of town, even if he flew at full speed.

"Okay, noted." Tucker wheezed.

"Tucker! _What's going on_?"

It was silent for a moment, a moment in which Danny assumed the worst, before finally they got an answer. "I'm fine you guys." Tucker sounded as though he were almost whispering, making it hard to pick out his words through the crackle. Harder still for Danny who had the wind whipping past his ears. "Though you'll never guess who I just ran into. Carrying a _telescope_."

"Who?" Danny and Sam demanded.

"I mean I don't want to assume-"

"Tucker!" Sam insisted.

"-but it sure _looks_ like a telescope."

" _Who is it_?"

" _Dash_!"

Danny came to an abrupt halt. "Dash? In the park? Now?"

"Carrying a telescope?" Sam added skeptically. "The dullest knife on the football team?" Danny ignored the jibe, she didn't know. It was fine. He started flying again, granted, not at break neck pace anymore, but fast enough.

"Yeah." Tucker answered, still sounding as surprised as they were. "Super weird, as soon as he saw me he hid it behind his back and pushed me down. Hey, maybe you should nerd out and talk about space things with him Danny, you could be friends and then he'd stop bothering us at school."

Sam laughed at that. Danny, for his part, chocked and spiraled in to a coughing fit. "You ok?" She asked.

"Yeah," Danny wheezed "just, um, swallowed a fly." It was believable enough, it had happened plenty of times before after all.

"Ew."

Tucker cut in "Anyway, I'm with Danny. We haven't seen this ghost for weeks, at some point were gonna' have to accept that it might be the one that got away."

"Don't make ghost hunting sound like a chick flick, Tucker." Sam seemed inherently disgusted by the idea.

"Warn me if you two are going to argue. It's technically Saturday and I have sleep I want to go catch up on." It wasn't a pure lie, Danny reasoned to himself. He did indeed have sleep he wanted to get to, but the prospect of Dash perhaps also being interested in stargazing was too good to pass up.

"I second that!" Tucker yelled quickly.

"Third." Sam said with a chuckle.

"Great." Danny answered, reaching up to turn off his Fenton phone. "G'night guys." His words were parroted back at him before he flicked the switch. Underneath him houses sped by, soon morphing in to the town proper. He started curving more towards the left, in the direction of Dash's house, than he would have if he were indeed going strait home. Starting to get closer, he slowed down and kept an eye out for Dash's convertible.

Expecting a bright fleck of red, Danny was surprised to see a sleek black car with the top pulled down back in to the open, double garage of the Baxter household. Just before the driver disappeared from sight, he flicked his face up towards the sky. Seeing Danny, a smile broke Dash's face, staying even as he brought his eyes back down to the task at hand.

Danny resolved that Dash probably wasn't that angry with him anyway, and was happy for it. He floated through the wall and settled on the foot of the bed, waiting for Dash, who came barreling hastily through the door, wide grin still in place, and carrying a case in which Danny assumed was the telescope Tucker mentioned, not a second later.

"Hey!" He almost whispered, slightly breathless. Danny couldn't help but note the slight flush, had he run through the house and upstairs?

"Hey." Danny answered, returning the smile, his own cocked to the side.

Dash glanced over his shoulder once before stepping fully in to the room and closing the door softly behind him. "I didn't think I'd see you at all today." It wasn't accusatory. Curious, if anything.

"Ah yeah," Danny brought a hand to the back of his neck "Some stuff got in the way and I, yeah."

"That's okay, I saw you chasing a ghost so figured you were busy."

Danny smiled, pleased that Dash indeed wasn't upset. "So what's that?" Danny pointed to the case.

"Oh, uh. It's nothing really. Forget it." Dash quickly crossed the room and stashed the case under his bed. Danny was now sure he wasn't imagining the blush.

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Can't be nothing if it's in a big protective case like that. C'mon," he urged at Dash's apparent embarrassment "you had your teddy bear collection out when I first came here. Can't be worse than that."

Dash sent him a weak glare from his position crouched by the bed. He was pouting again, like Danny remembered him doing the very first time he snuck in here. "I was hoping you hadn't seen that, or at least remembered."

Danny laughed "Not remember a giant pile of pastel, plushy bears? You gotta' be kidding me. What's the story behind them anyway?"

Dash looked away, face darkening yet another few shades. "I, it's really-" He stalled, looking away and scratching his cheek, before seeming to reach som sort of decision in his mind. He turned with disproportionate determination in his eyes, so much so that Danny lent back a little. "Promise you won't laugh."

Danny held his hands up "Cross my heart and hope to die. Again."

"Or tell anyone. Promise."

Danny smiled. "I'm a ghost Dash, who am I supposed to tell?" Sam and Tucker for one, the rest of the school for another. Dash only stared. "Okay okay, I promise! Not a sound." He made a ziplock motion over his mouth.

Dash seemed placated with that, so he hoisted himself up and slumped down next to Danny. "Okay, so, I guess I should start with when I was born. Mom always wanted a daughter 'cause she grew up with only brothers and so did Dad, so she was really disappointed when I wasn't. So my dad as joke went down to the hospital gift shop and got this little pink bear. And, well _apparently_ when I was a baby it was my favorite toy, so as joke every birthday dad would get another one or two for me. They aren't even usually out, 'cause I keep them in a box in my the back of my closet, but um. Well, a little while ago I found another by chance, and since the company went bankrupt and stopped producing them it's rare to see them still being sold." Here he stopped and looked away, one finger scratching his cheek yet again, something Danny had come to understand was something Dash did when embarrassed or nervous "So I figured fuck it, and got it. But when I went to put it with the others I had to drag out half my closet to get to the box, and by the time I'd done that I thought I might as well get rid of a bunch of the junk I had back there, but then when I put everything back in I realized I'd managed to forget about the bears and I couldn't be bothered to bring everything back out so I just left them there for a couple of days but then you showed up before I got around to putting them back and I'm rambling now and I'll stop." Dash's fingers drummed against his thigh while he stared resolutely at the at the far corner of his room.

"That's it?" Dash turned to Danny with an unreadable expression, but something about it landed somewhere in the ballpark of shocked. "I mean, with the whole promise-you-won't-laugh thing I expected something _way_ worse. But that's literally nothing to be embarrassed about." Danny gave Dash a big grin just prove how inconsequential it really was.

"Um, I guess not." He said, something small and happy flitting across his face as he cast his eyes downwards. Danny came very close to laughing then, thinking that if the jock had anything to really be embarrassed about it would be such a sentimental expression after just sharing such a, dare he think it, adorable story.

Danny decided to tease the other teen, with a joke that wasn't quite a joke. "Maybe even a little cute."

Dash jerked and sputtered something incoherent that Danny ignored completely. "So what's that thing under your bed then. Like I said, it can't be worse than a collection of little teddy bears." When Dash still seemed ambivalent Danny decided to take matters in to his own hands, it's not like he didn't already know what it was. "Fine. I'll have to find out for myself then." What he really wanted to know was _why_ Dash of all people had a telescope. The sooner the jock got over whatever hang ups he had in showing it, the sooner Danny would get to know the answers he wanted.

"Wait!" Dash exclaimed when Danny hopped off the bed and plunged his hands down through it. Dash instinctively tried to grab Danny's arm to stop him, but his fingers slipped through. "Danny!"

Danny only laughed, bringing the case up and plopping it on the the bed. "Sooo, gonna' say anything before I open it?" He asked, eye brows waggling in tandem with his thumbs over the case's locks.

"Fuck you!" Danny rolled his eyes, clicking open the lid and popping it up. Dash had turned and hid his red face in his hands, mumbling a pained "Oh my God." Danny had to chuckle at the response, Dash in the moment bringing up the mental image of a teenage girl talking to her crush.

Inside was indeed a telescope. A sleek, shiny, black, absolutely frickin' _gorgeous_ telescope. It totaled four separate pieces, the biggest of which lying diagonally across, all nestled in fit-to-form, stiff felt. Not a kink, scratch or dent to speak of. Opening the case, it even _smelled_ new. Danny exhaled an awed "Whow."

Dash cracked apart two fingers far enough to peer at Danny trough them "You... you don't think it's lame?"

Danny grinned widely "Dash, this is the _coolest_!" Danny himself had never had a telescope like this one, seeing as the ops center doubled as a fully functioning observatory. That didn't mean however that he couldn't appreciate it's magnificence when he had one in front of him.

Dash slowly removed his hands. "You actually think it's cool?" He exclaimed, sounding more surprised than Danny thought was due. "You don't think it's nerdy or geeky or whatever?"

"Yeah of course. Space and stars are awesome, and this right here" he said gesturing with open palms to the telescope "is practically a work of art. I'd love to see this thing put together."

"Uh," was all Dash said, still obviously uncomfortable. For _what,_ Danny couldn't comprehend.

Danny let his grin fall to a comfortable smile "What, did you think I'd call it stupid and leave?"

"Um, yeah I guess. At least, that's what happened last time."

"Last time?"

Looking conflicted Dash turned away again, seeming to study a spot on the floor. "Yeah, my ex doesn't really like sciency shit like this, so when I told her I did, she called it stupid and pretended like I'd never said anything after that."

"Oh." Danny wondered if that was Paulina. It probably was. She was really something to look at, but since crushing on and subsequently dating Valerie and Sam, however briefly both relationships lasted, Danny had come to understand that beauty sometimes could be superficial, and nothing more. "Y'know she was wrong, right?"

"Whatever." Dash growled, moving to close the case again.

Now it was Danny's turn to yell "Wait!" and reach out. He clasped his hand over Dash's, but flinched away at the glare he received. "You know I wanted to be an astronaut." Danny blurted, hoping it would draw Dash out again so that he wouldn't clam up like he seemed so good at doing.

Dash whipped his head up "You what?"

"Yeah I did." Danny heaved a sigh "But you need a doctorate in one of the sciences to even qualify, and even if I had that I would never pass the physicals." Even as a half human it was a pipe dream. But Danny made himself okay with that, or that's what he told himself in any case. "I guess I've kinda' started thinking that I might get to space somehow as a ghost, but there's no way I want to find out what might happen when I re-enter the Earths atmosphere without a suit or ship or anything. So yeah, I guess that's maybe not happening at all." Danny rubbed the back of his neck and tried for a laugh, but it sounded hollow to even his ears.

"Oh. Shit Danny, that's-"

Danny waved him off before he had the chance to say anything more. "Don't worry about it, with my grades I wouldn't have managed. Anyway," he made himself smile again "are we gonna' set this baby up or what?"

"Um, yeah sure. Why not I guess."

Danny grinned again "Nice! There's still a few good hours left of the night, I can fly us out to the edge of town where the white washing isn't as bad."

"Outside of town?"

"Yeah, where else?" Danny said, hopping off the bed and drifting over to the far wall.

"I usually just go to the park."

Danny stopped short, realizing his ignorance. "Wait, is that why you went trough the trouble of getting that bench through the trees to that little hill?" Danny asked, suddenly understanding more why Dash was so found of the knoll. Ha laughed "Alright, we can go there."

Dash smiled, and it seemed genuine, making Danny happy that they were moving away from the awkward and emotional to more lighthearted territory.

Even though a part of Danny really wanted to see more of this other, serious side of Dash. To understand him more.

"So," Danny held out a hand "you carry the 'scope, I'll carry you?" he suggested with a cheeky smirk.

Dash frowned and narrowed his eyes suspiciously "You're not gonna' carry me like a girl again, right?" He took a step back, case held out between them like it might stand in for a shield. Not that either would actually help. "'Cause then I think I'll just drive."

"C'mon, it'll take less time to fly." Danny grin only grew "Besides, you're hurt. I'm being a good friend and carrying you in way that won't make your injuries worse."

"The doctor says they'll be okay enough for me to go back to school on Monday."

"Well today isn't Monday." Danny rolled his eyes when Dash took yet another step back, something theatrically apprehensive spread all over his face. "Fine, I'll cary you like a dude, scouts honor."

Dash raised an eyebrow "You were a scout?"

"What? No! I- whatever." Danny dived after the jock, who made a valiant effort to escape, but ultimately faced the inevitable. Danny grabbed him by the waist and shoved him against his own side, laughter on the tips of both of their tongues. Dash struggled for a moment but fell limp when they started lifting off the ground. "Here we go." and he zoomed them trough the wall.

Once out in the open air, Danny took them up, far above the tops of the houses and trees. There, with the stars and seemingly endless expanse of night and sky all around them, the cold and the late hour was hardly noticed. Danny flew deliberately slowly, partly because he couldn't fly at his fastest with another person, it was like sprinting with a giant backpack. But also party because he wanted to prolong it, even marginally so. The first time they flew together was far from ideal, this time Danny was determined for Dash to get a proper chance to see how amazing it could be.

Dash had, probably on instinct, thrown an arm around Danny's shoulders to hold himself steady, the other one pressing the case protectively to his chest. His eyes were so bright, looking every which way, often down, to see the town drifting by underneath them. "You won't drop me then?" Dash asked, amazement bringing a giddy laughter to his question. He seemed too in awe to really be bothered with the actual answer.

Even so, Danny smiled and said "No." deciding for once not to ruin the moment with a quip.

Danny turned his head from where he himself was watching the sky to Dash, only to find the jock's head a great deal closer than what he really knew how to deal with. Then by some horrid stroke of luck Dash himself turned, and suddenly their faces were closer still. So, so very close tod each other, to the point were Danny felt their breath intermingling. He could count Dash's eyelashes. Smell the product in his hair.

Danny swallowed hard. He blinked several times and dragged his eyes away. He pinched his thigh to remind him to _wake up_ , remind him that were _friends_ and this was _Dash Baxter_ of all people and he had no business being that close. These _feelings_ were obviously just nerves or whatever from this surprising friendship with his bully.

He resumed flying, not even having noticed that they had stopped at any point, a touch faster than he had before. Now he felt like his skin was just a little too tight and the spring night was just a little too hot and it hardly helped that Dash was pressed very firmly against him. Touching down and the ground and all but jumping away and it felt like sweet blessed relief more than anything else. And now he could exercise a little of his ice powers to just _cool off_.

Dash breathed a laugh, stretching out his chest and arms with care. "I can see why you say you like flying so much, that was amazing!"

"Yeah, it really is something else. I wish I could fly around more during the night." Danny answered, concentrating more than strictly necessary on his tone and enunciation.

"Why don't you?"

Danny shrugged. Mostly because his parents were so particular about curfew, he only could when he used the excuse of staying over at one of his friends houses. And those nights if he was out flying, they would almost always prioritize parole, leaving little room for true leisure. "I guess I don't really have the time to go whenever I want."

"Because ghosts are always attacking?"

He shrugged again "Yeah they attack a lot. But anyway," he gestured to the case still in Dash's hands "show me how to put it together?"

And just like that Dash smiled again, hesitant but bright, and Danny thought it was a little funny how shy the quarterback seemed over showing his 'geeky and nerdy' side. To think he even had that side at all was a huge yet very welcome surprise.

Dash set the case on the picnic table, clicked and flipped it opened and brought out the first and largest piece, what looked to be the main body of the telescope, along with a much smaller one that fit in the palm of his hand. Danny drifted closer, hovering over the bench and leaning in to get a better look, yet being sure to keep at least a foot of distance between them. Dash fumbled slightly in the dark, bringing the two pieces up close to his face as he tried to fit them together, and even so still not managing it.

Quite abruptly he turned in his seat and almost pressed himself and his hands to Danny's chest, making him back up, which of course only made Dash follow. "Hold still," he growled, deep in concentration as he continued to try to screw the telescope together in vain "and any chance you can turn up your glow stick powers? I can hardly see a thing."

"My what?"

Dash looked up "You're a literal glow stick Danny. And these bits are hard enough to fit together, I need a little light or this isn't happening."

"I've never used my powers like that before."

It was finally Dash's turn to look a little cheeky as he countered "First time for everything."

Danny gave him a flat stare, but couldn't deny that the prospect of controlling his natural ghostly glow did intrigue him, he hadn't seen any other ghosts do it. "Okay fine, but this might take a couple tries, tell me if anything happens." He closed his eyes, and, without really knowing what else he should do, tried to imagine the glow becoming brighter. He felt a shift in his energy, the way he always did when exercising any of his minor powers.

"Something happened." Dash said, although his thoroughly unimpressed tone wasn't what Danny wanted to hear.

"Calm down, no reason to get all excited or anything." He replied sarcastically. Although he understood why, looking down at himself he saw, well, rather he _didn't_ see himself. "Oh."

"You did make it _darker_ though, that's something."

"Shut up, this is harder than it looks." Danny returned to visibility and closed his eyes again.

Seven minutes later found Dash sprawled along the table, Danny gripping its edges with white knuckles, and staring down at its knotted wood as if he could burn it with a glare alone.

"Y'know by now you could've probably zipped up back to my place, I could'a grabbed a flash light or something, and zipped back."

"One more try and the I give up! One more try!" Danny yelled, standing through the bench and hardly noticing. He scrunched his face up, and tried for all he was worth to focus on _light_ and being _brighter_ and _god damnit he was Danny Phantom this shouldn't be so DIFFICULT_.

Suddenly Dash gasped, and it didn't sound like the fake gasp he had tried a couple of minutes ago. "What!" Danny exclaimed, opening his eyes. Though as soon as they were opened they were drawn down to his hands, hands that were glowing intensely green. "Huh." Danny unclasped them from the table, and found two hand prints scorched on the surface. "Oops."

Dash laughed excitedly "Who cares, _look_!"

Danny did, and found that it wasn't actually his hands that were glowing, rather a film of ectoplasm covering his palms. He put his hands together, like he did when he was charging up a strong, double ectoblast, and focused on bringing the ectoplasm together, pleased to find that it actually worked.

The result made an intensely bright orb, about the size of a baseball Danny estimated, floating independently two feet above the table top. It was enough to light the small clearing circled with trees, giving the already dense, bright green foliage of late spring an unnaturally vivid fluorescence. Beyond that, the trees behind seemed darker still by contrast, hanging over them silently and impassively. Not even the overly tall grass stirred, instead disappearing into the shadows between the trunks that walled them off so completely from the entire world.

"Spooky."

Danny snorted "You're friends with a ghost in a haunted town, Dash. I hope your bar for 'spooky' is a little higher than that." Dash only laughed, infectious as it always was, and reached out to the orb. "Wait! Don't touch that! I don't know what it will do."

Dash stared Danny down, dead serious expression and tone. "I know you won't hurt me Glow Stick."

Danny gaped, tossing himself back as if hit with a physical blow, making a series of incoherent and rather offended sounds in the back of his throat as he tried to make sense of what was just said. His mind settled on " _Glow Stick_!"

Dash grinned, looking entirely too pleased with himself, like a child that had just found the family secret stash of treats. He didn't say anything, instead taking full advantage of Danny's stunned shock to pluck the orb right out of the air.

"Hey!"

"It's _fine_." Dash smiled "See?" He held the thing up, waggling it in his hand a little. "Doesn't even hurt, actually it's kinda' cold. I thought it would be warm." He brought it closer, turning it over in his hands, examining it with with interest.

"You still shouldn't have touched it. It _could_ have hurt you!"

Dash smiled again, and Danny had to hate how bright it was. Brighter than the orb between them. "But you didn't." He tossed it between his hands a few times, watching as it drifted, like it was stuck in perpetual slow motion. "But it's really awesome that you could just make it like that. Like, something you'd never done before and boom, here it is."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, fighting to keep the blush off his cheeks. "Um, thanks. Anyway, is it light enough now? Can you see?"

"Oh yeah!" Dash tossed the orb casually in the air, where it settled just above their heads, and got to work assembling with renewed vigor.

* * *

 **So I've actually had a little trouble with this one, I'm a little worried that the diologue is a little stilted? Tell me what you think? Good, bad? Okay? Thanks! Criticism is always appreciated.**

 **And by the way, what with your unexpected obsession with the "bridal style" line? Like, I've gotten so many reviews and PMs about it. There was even one guest that wrote a review that consisted exclusively of writing "bridal style" three time, the last _capitalized_. Hilarious, I've seriously laughed so many times reading them you guys, but whyyyyyyyy? (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: In which there are even more feelings. Anger is one of them and both boys really can't deal.

Hidden away between the trees they stayed for hours with Dash's telescope. Between chatting about space and reveling in a new mutual interest, they talked. And joked, and laughed and did everything two teenagers do when they realize that they really like someone.

Not that Danny like, _liked_ Dash or anything. They were _friends_. And that was awesome.

However the young half ghost once again fell in to the frustrating and seemingly inescapable trap of feeling like he could say anything, only to realize he of course couldn't, and hope that he could successfully and quickly veer the conversation to something else. Dash, for his part, seemed to have loosed up and really relaxed once he started assembling the telescope, settling back in to the amicability of their friendship. Danny was however constantly yanked back to the reality of truly who he was and was with, not a close friend, regardless of how close he was starting to feel, but Dash. He was reminded of this every time he almost shared just a little too much about himself, said something about his life as a halfa, or had to reconstruct a story to censor anything human.

Danny would try to shrug it off, but he wondered if Dash wasn't starting to catch on, he didn't seem like he was, but then again Dash had managed to hide an apparently very avid love of science from the whole school. So Danny couldn't really be very sure anymore of what Dash did or did not notice or how much of his true feelings he was or was not hiding.

As it was, where Danny preferred planetology, Dash leaned more towards astronomy. Which made sense, as Danny understood it Dash's interest in space and science originated from casual stargazing, as opposed to Danny's want for exploration and adventure.

Which now that he thought about it was perhaps part of the reason he had allowed Sam to convince him so easily to check out the ghost portal in the first place. But that was besides the point.

At four fifty eight in the morning, they were still on the knoll, having dismantled the telescope and replacing the parts back its case again, in favor of simply lying on their backs by the picnic table, the tops of their head almost touching. The sun's light had long since started spreading over the far horizon and curling around the edges of the thick circle of trees. Grass and weeds grew high around them, flopping over their faces softly.

"Wait wait wait," Danny laughed " _you_ have an A in _science_?"

"We just spent the entire night stargazing Danny, I dunno' why you're still surprised."

"But you're," Danny waved his arms uselessly above him in leu of anything to say. He couldn't exactly ask, then why do you act like such a neanderthal at school? Or why do you always beat me up after a failed test or whatever? "you're the quarterback. Aren't quarterbacks usually like" he rolled his hands in a noncommittal gesture, drawing out the last word.

For that he received a sharp jab in the cheek, courtesy of Dash's index finger, "Wow, rude. Didn't think Danny Phantom stereotyped a lot. Besides, Kwan's like, a genius. Gets As on _everything_."

"Didn't you say Kwan's Asian?" Danny couldn't help it.

"Yeah but- oh fuck you Danny!" They both laughed, the sound touching on tired delirium.

After a moment of staring blankly up at the sky, Danny continued "But really, how? You just," he purses his lips, looking for a phrasing that wouldn't give him away "you just don't seem like a... studious type."

Danny herd Dash sigh and shift his weight, "Well, math and science just kinda' make sense, y'know? It's like, two plus two will always be four, you can't ask how two plus two is feeling and one day it'll be five when yesterday it was three. I hate it in English when Mr. Lancer wants us to write a poem or analyze character motivation or some shit, I always gets Fs on those. Science always has one answer, that's it. It's easy."

"Huh, I never thought of it that way. I always get pretty good grades in English." Danny had always had a sort of knack for the kinds of things that Dash apparently struggled with most. English was the class that he needed to try the least in, especially the creative writing assignments, to get grades okay enough to stay under the radar. If he had more time he might've even excelled. It helped too, when dealing with ghosts, that he had an certain gut feeling when it came to deciphering motivation.

But then what he said had caught up with him. " _I mean I used to get okay grades_! Before! When I.. was... alive." He finished lamely, tucking his chin downwards to stare at his hands clasped together and resting on his stomach.

It was like Dash's eyes on him was a tangible force. Even though Danny wasn't sure whether or not Dash was actually looking at him besides the shift in grass and ruffle of fabric, and finally the small puff of air on the top of Danny's head. He braved a glance back up again and was met with Dash oh-my-god- _he's-so-close_ to his face. "Hey," Dash said, and even though it sounded like a whisper his hot breath still wafted through Danny's hair "can I ask you something?"

Danny's lips parted just a little. There was something wonderful and intimate about the moment, Danny couldn't quite place it but it was somehow fundamentally different from any moment he'd ever shared with his two best friends. The sky was quickly brightening, but it had yet to reach the point of actual daylight. It was still mostly dark, the warm early morning reds and yellows slowly chasing away the stars they had spent so many hours looking up at. The air smelled of spring. And then there was Dash, made of muscle and blue eyes and blond hair still immaculate as ever, swooped back and gelled down, looking golden in the low light. "Sure."

Dash licked his lips, and Danny was perhaps imagining that Dash leaned down, closer so very close, and another little puff of air blew over him. "You can like, not answer if you don't want to. I don't want, I mean, like, yeah." He finished with an apologetic smile.

Danny couldn't find the gesture anything other than endearing, and once again a flush of feelings washed through him, unbidden and warm. There was a slight hint nerves in Dash's eyes, they made Danny feel like Dash was gathering courage to say something, or do something. Anything. He took a deep breath, suddenly overwhelmed with the warm and wonderful whatever of this strange brief moment between them, but all it brought was an assault of Dash's _smell_ , deep and musky like the woods. When Danny answered he sounded breathless, and couldn't take his eyes off Dash's, he didn't mind one bit "Sure, ask anything you want."

Dash swallowed, and okay now he was sure he wasn't imaging that their faces were closer, Dash _had_ to be leaning in. Or perhaps Danny was leaning up, it was hard to tell anymore "Um, this is gonna' sound totally weird and like I said you can-"

"Just ask!" Danny all but yelled, all of a sudden feeling impatient. Needing to know what Dash wanted, to please just do or ask or say whatever he needed to. The anticipation, the nervous lilt of his lips, the hypnotizing bob of his Addams apple. _Just do it_!

"How did you die?"

Danny blinked.

Then he blinked again.

He didn't know what he was expecting but it certainly wasn't _that_.

Danny sat up abruptly, taken completely out of the moment, whatever the god damned hell it was, and tried to focus and realign his completely derailed thoughts. "Um, what?" He scrubbed a hand over his face, acutely aware of hot it was and tried to ignore the onset of what, dissatisfaction? No, disappointment?

"Oh, fuck, listen, you really don't have to answer, it was just something I've sorta' wondered about, but obviously you're-"

"No no! It's fine, I'm fine." He tried to believe it. "I just, it was, hah, a bit of a curve ball question is all. I um," ha stalled, trying and failing to put his very, _very_ , jumbled thoughts in order and fabricate some plausible half truth that would satisfy Dash. "I um, I guess you could say I was electrocuted. I, well my parents were inventors, and when one of their machines didn't work I decided to listen to my friend like an idiot and went inside the thing. And it turned on, and I was electrocuted."

"Oh god that sounds.." he drew out the last hiss, looking for and landing on "painful."

Danny laughed, but it sounded a little hollow, bitter even. "Yeah it was, sometimes when I get a little static shock I feel like I'm back there for like, half a second. But if I'm being honest, I think it was one of, if not the, best thing that's ever happened to me."

" _Really_?" Dash sounded almost a little disturbed.

Danny kept his eyes studiously away from Dash's face, "Yeah, I mean, who doesn't want to be a superhero, right? And I guess, knowing that everyday I'm helping people, saving them, helping ghosts too, it makes everything else a little easier to deal with. Like, no matter what small thing happens to make my day suck, at the end of it, I still did something to make someone else's better. I maybe even saved a life." He smiled, surprised at not only his own honesty, but the nature of his situation. It was so rare that he was able to verbalize everything he dealt with as Phantom, the good and the bad, and have someone really listen. Sam and Tucker had been there from the get go, and the three of them, while supportive of each other, had long since fallen in to an equilibrium that didn't need talking or explaining. Jazz was at collage and he didn't want to bother her, not that he really wanted her psycho analyzing him anyway.

And he _certainly_ wasn't about to go have a heart to heart with the fruitloop.

Talking to Dash was refreshing.

"Yeah." Dash sounded far away in his own world. Danny braved a glance over his shoulder, finding the quarterback with his arms wrapped around his bent knees and staring unseeingly on the grass in front of him.

There were so many things Danny wanted to ask. But somehow he couldn't find the words. And even if he could've, he didn't think he'd want to break the pocket silence they were in. So instead he contended himself to stare at the own little patch of grass around his feet. It was so tall and over grown it almost reached his mid back while sitting, but the two teenagers had patted down most of it around them.

All around them the sounds of the park waking up and began to fill the absence of conversation, crickets and birds shook off sleep, the wind blew through the trees and even the shadows seemed lighter. "It's getting late, or early." Danny said when a small brown bird flew down and chirped happily on the table behind them.

The flight back to Dash's home was much the same as the first. Though Dash himself seemed largely interested in the town below, now able to see it properly in the dewy morning. And even though, again, Danny kept an extra slow pace, the flight still seemed to blink away far too quickly. Too soon found Danny leaning against the outer wall of Dash's bedroom.

Twice, once on Saturday and then again Sunday morning Dash asked, "Do you wanna' do this again tonight?"

And twice Danny answered "Absolutely"

Although when Sunday night finally rolled around, and they had gone to the park and come back again, this time at one, Dash asked "Hey, you okay man?"

"What?"

"You just, I dunno' seemed kinda' off all night."

"Oh." Danny's hand slipped up to his neck. "I guess I'm just tired s'all." He tried for a smile, and Dash seemed almost convinced. "Look, I'm fine! Really!" Danny tried again, and twirled a couple times midair for good measure. "See? Never better."

Dash laughed, and it was bright and infectious like it always was. "If you say so Glow Stick."

Danny scoffed "You're never gonna' give that up, are you?"

"Not on yer life- oh, uh I mean-"

Danny waved the sudden worry away "I get it. I get it." The movement was sluggish, because even though he'd told Dash he was 'just tired' as an excuse, it didn't make it any less true. Even teenage boys run out of juice eventually.

For one lethargic, and sleepily blissful second they just stood and floated, respectively, and smiled at each other. Somewhere in the back of Danny's head a voice was screaming at him saying how stupid and cheesy that was, and it was probably voicing a whole lot of opinions about certain unresolved feelings but Danny was just tired enough to truly not care.

The past three nights with Dash had been like something out of a dream. Who would have thought that Dash, Dash Baxter of all people, would be in to astronomy. Danny had long since given up on trying coerce either of his friends to stargaze with him, and he could hardly even _think_ about joining some club.

"So," Danny drawled, putting off the inevitable. He'd been feeling it all weekend, the slow march to the start of the week.

The slow march to seeing Dash at school again. He wondered if seeing that Dash would shatter everything they had built over the past month. What they had, their friendship, still felt so new and fragile.

"You sure you're okay?" Dash asked again, so sincere. Danny swallowed, aware that he probably looked horrid. "Y'know," Dash continued, his hand flicked up momentarily, as if he wanted to touch Danny, but didn't "you can talk to me, if you want. I mean, I suck at giving advice or whatever, and I know like nothing about ghosts and stuff, but if you need someone to talk to to..." Dash let the sentence hang, in the same way his hand hung between them. Nonetheless the invitation was clear.

Danny wanted to hug Dash in that moment. He wanted to reveal everything, he wanted-

He wasn't sure what he wanted, but he felt like something wasn't quite right. Something didn't quite meet the wild pace of his heart. "Thanks." He said, and met Dash's hand halfway, knowing he wanted to do _something_ , but having no idea what that something was. He gave it a brief squeeze and let go.

Beating a quick retreat he phased through the wall before either of them could do anything else. And before Danny managed to say something he might regret.

He could still feel his palm tingling from where they'd made contact once he'd gotten home.

Monday morning came far too quickly.

It slammed in to Danny, blaring in the form of his alarm clock, shaking him out of his warm bed and even warmer half-remembered dreams. He ate his toast slowly, listening to the faint sounds coming from the basement of his parents working, or at least his mother, early bird as she'd always been. He shuffled his feet and took his time packing his backpack. He knew if he kept stalling like this he was only going to make himself late in the end, which meant that he'd have to fly to school, which meant he'd have to be bothered with finding a place to transform in the middle of hundreds of teenagers all trying to make it to class like him.

Which of course is exactly what happened.

"Well look who finally decided to show his face." Sam said, looking non too pleased, when he caught up to her at the door to their home room. She shoved Tucker lightly in the shoulder, making him reluctantly tear away from his beloved PDA.

"Hey." Danny greeted, out of breath after having run through the halls.

"Where were you all weekend! We couldn't get a hold of you _at all!_ "

"I, sorry I was just-"

"You're _sorry_?" She seethed and jabbed a hard, purple nailed finger in Danny's chest. "You don't get to go completely MIA and then say _sorry_. Where _were_ you!"

"I, I was just, um."

" _Well_?"

"Stargazing." He finished, shrinking away from the writhing fury of a provoked Sam.

"Stargazing." She repeated flatly. "The reason why you've been impossible to get a hold of for two whole days is because you were busy, stargazing."

Tucker chose that moment to interrupt with "You guys know we're blocking the door, right?" Punctuated by the late bell ringing.

They moved inside, but that didn't deter Sam "Danny you can be such an idiot sometimes I could _strangle you_." She whispered harshly as they took their seats. "You could have _at least_ sent a message! We were _this close_ to banging down Vlad's door to ask what he'd done with you."

"In my defense I voted we actually go to your place first to check if you were there but no." Tucker added, only to receive his own glare.

"Ms. Manson, Mr. Foley and Mr. Fenton, was there anything you wanted to say to the class before I begin homeroom?" Mr. Lancer interjected just as Sam was, indeed, about to continue.

Instead she sat up strait and answered, in full seriousness "Only that my friends are idiots Mr. Lancer." The laughter from the rest of the class made Sam look characteristically smug.

Their teacher stared down his nose at her "That is unhelpful criticism Ms. Manson, if I hear that again you'll earn yourself a detention." From there the day progresses in much the expected way. Mr. Lancer announced Dash's long awaited return to school, for which there was much jubilee, rolled through the regular Monday notes, took register and sent them on their merry way.

Danny shared first period with the quarterback, and knowing this he of course hung back. Dash seemed happy, as far as Danny could tell. By the time Danny got to the classroom Dash's desk was already swarmed with well wishers clawing at the most popular boy is school's attention. Danny took his usual seat on the very last row, from where he had a clear view of Dash. Throughout the period notes were passed and laughing looks tossed across the room, and Dash played his part perfectly. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking that the smile he sent his friends weren't quite as warm as the ones he saved for Danny.

Come lunch break Danny was, like almost every student in the school, making his way to the cafeteria too meet his friends. However when he rounded the last corner, he was met with Dash, in all his glory, surrounded by a pack of varsity clad teenagers.

One of the football players glanced his way and Danny knew it was all over. It was like watching everything play out in slow motion. The football player smirked and jabbed an elbow in Dash's arm to get his attention. His smirk then widened in to something horrible and cruel, he jerked his head over to where Danny was standing and said something Danny couldn't hear.

Dash looked over and for one short, so very very short, second, he looked lost. Danny almost let himself be convinced that perhaps Dash had reflected some on his behavior, or that he might smile like he did at Phantom, or in the least he might just walk away.

But of course he did none of those things. Instead he himself grinned, mirroring that of his friend and one by one the other jocks noticed their quarterback's diverted attention and followed suit. "Well if it isn't Fentina, here to welcome me back huh?" Dash yelled over the chatter, sauntering over with his hands in his pockets, looking as content as can be. Some other students stopped, no doubt expecting a spectacle. Others, very few, simply glanced in their direction and kept walking, deciding whatever was about to happen between jock and some nerd obviously wasn't worth their time.

Danny took a step back, he knew it was hopeless. If he ran he would only be chased down, and would only be worse for him once they finally did catch him. "H-hey Dash." He said, cursing the involuntary stumble. Dash was almost on top of him now, and Danny had been backed up to the wall behind him. "Look I don't wan-"

He was interrupted by Dash's fist on the wall. There wasn't much of sound on the plaster but it was still plenty threatening all the same. "No _you_ listen Fenton, I've had nothing to do for weeks, and well, what can I say? I missed you." Dash was close now, just as close as he had been when they'd been lying in the park. But instead of the soft glow of the early morning framing his hair, it was the harsh, yellow lights of the school hallways. His eyes weren't gentle, his smile wasn't kind. His friends stood by behind him, their cruel laughter replacing the ruffled swoon of the park trees.

Still with his eyes securely on Danny, Dash addressed his entourage "So what do we want to do to Fentoad today, huh? Good ol' classic beat down or something more special?" Again they laughed, alight with malice.

Danny averted his eyes, pressed himself as far in to wall as he could and tried not to hear anything. "What? Nothing to say?" He felt foolish for ever thinking he could still be friends with Dash, in whatever form, once he returned to school.

The laughter increased. Danny felt a sneer curling his lip, why did he dare to think Dash would change.

"C'mon Fenturd, say something."

Why did he think Dash would learn.

"Whatever just punch him already."

Why did think they could be _friends_.

"Dash I'm hungry." "Get it over with."

Just from a handful of measly hangouts.

"What the fuck Dash?" "What's the hold up?" "Fucking do it already."

Dash would never change.

 _Just_

He should have known.

 _punch_

He was so pathetic.

 _the_

So stupid!

 _FREAK_

"Shut up!" Danny yelled. "Yeah Dash just do it! Punch me already and _get it over with_!" He yelled in Dash's face, only an inch or so from his own. It was enough to give the quarterback pause, in which Danny took immense satisfaction. Wanting to do as much damage as he could now that he was the one with Dash on the hook, he leaned close, almost so that their faces touched like they had when they had watched horror movies together, and whispered, so that only the Dash would hear "You never deserved a second chance."

Danny knew it was the wrong thing to say. The wrong thing for _Fenton_ to say. But it did the job and it did it _well_.

Too well, because once he shoved past Dash, it was only a second before there was a sharp red hot streak of pain through his skull.

He was unconscious before he even hit the floor.

* * *

 **So before you gut me for that cliffhanger, I'd like to point out that it's Christmas, the time of peace and leaving nice reviews? Anyway, in the spirit of Christmas, I'm gonna' try and get a chapter out each week! Criticism is always appreciated!**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: In which there are even _more_ feelings and the author is considering renaming the fic to _Feeligs Ahoy._

Danny woke with too heavy limbs on a too stiff surface and most of all with the too bright, they were just awful, lights of the school nurse's office. In the brief bleary moment before he found his bearings, when all he was aware of was the smell of disinfectant and sharp pain in his head, Danny wondered if he hadn't finally been caught by his parents. The school nurse herself, a portly woman of a kind yet stern disposition, must have heard Danny shifting on the cot, or perhaps heard the moan Danny wasn't sure if he'd made or not, his head was pounding too much. Within seconds she was on her feet fussing about him and asking him questions he couldn't focus on.

Finally she took his chin in one small, pudgy hand and turned Danny to face her. "Can you hear me?" she asked loudly, enunciating each syllable too deliberately, boarding on the ridiculous.

Danny, groggy as he was, snapped "I'm not deaf."

That drew a frown from the nurse. "Indeed. If you have the presence of mind to insult me boy you must be right as rain. Still, I'm going run a few tests, don't move." Promptly a thermometer was shoved in his mouth and a small flashlight pointed directly in front of his eyes, respectively. She ran through all the basic physical assessments with practiced ease, asking questions as she went, this time actually waiting for a response, and scratching everything on a form attached to an old worn clipboard.

"Hmm, nothing seems to be too out of the ordinary. You're a little cold, but long sleeves and jacket ought to help well enough. Must have been some fall." She glanced up and down from the thermometer and Danny a couple times before making another note.

"Um, fall?" Danny asked.

The nurse turned to him with suspicion in her eyes. "Your friends carried you here during lunch, they said you tripped and fell."

"Oh yeah, yeah totally." That must be what they'd told the nurse. He wondered if they'd seen anything of the actual altercation with Dash. "Um, I'm feeling much better now so I think I'll just go." He began to get up but a firm hand on his chest pushed him back down.

"Oh no you don't. You've been unconscious since noon and I have half a mind to make sure you're warmed up. If I didn't know better I'd say you're borderline hypothermic." Again, she glanced up and down from the thermometer, a pensive look on her.

Danny's eyes widened "I feel completely fine you don't have to-"

The nurse raised a hand to silence him. "Mr. Fenton I've made up my mind. I'm going to fetch you a hot water bottle, and you _will_ stay with it _here_ for the remainder of the day."

"A hot water bottle? It's _summer._ " Danny shrunk away under the stern glare.

"It's sprig Mr. Fenton," she deadpanned, as if that made all the difference "and I don't want to hear another word from you." She stood, but before exiting she turned back and said pointedly "If I come back to find you've disappeared, I will make sure you receive detention for every class you missed today."

That was enough to make Danny stay put. After years of tardies and absences the teachers were hardly lenient with him.

Luckily there was only one period left of the day, not even that, so it wasn't long Danny had to stand the hot water bottle under his feet and piercing glare of the nurse before he was dismissed. Even though the nurse had grabbed his shoulder on his way out insisting there would be serious consequences if she caught him without a jacket in the future.

Just as he closed the door behind him, he heard Sam call his name from down the hall. "Class just ended and we came strait here. Are you okay?" She asked, running up to him, flanked by Tucker. "She wouldn't let us see you while you were still out."

"Yeah I'm fine. I mean," he tried for a chuckle "I have splitting headache and the nurse thinks I'm hypothermic. But I'm fine."

Sam smiled, however begrudgingly so "Well if you can joke you've gotta' be fine."

"He's not fine! _Dash punched him in the back of the head_. What _was_ that?" Tucker exclaimed.

Danny pursed his lips "It was just Dash being Dash." He shrugged.

"'Dash being Dash'? He _knocked you out_ man!"

"Y'know for once I agree with Tucker. Dash went _way_ too far this time." Sam crossed her arms.

Danny opened his mouth, a defense ready on his lips, but he thought better of it. After all, was there a point anymore? "Yeah, he did. Can we just, I dunno' go? I don't want to have to see him again." He brought a hand up to his neck. It's was true, he didn't want to see Dash's probably smug and triumphant face. Not right then, in either form.

The look Sam and Tucker shared wasn't lost on him, but he chose not to remark on it. Sam said slowly "Yeah, sounds good. We can maybe go to the library and get some homework done?"

So the trio did just that. The halls were packed with students funneling past them in both directions, talking, giggling, yelling, slamming lockers, laughing, chattering, calling, stomping their feet. It was as good a camouflage as if Danny, Sam and Tucker were made invisible, silently weaving their way through the throng of hot bodies. It was a little nice actually, like everything going on was white noise drowning out how horrible Danny felt.

He knew he had no right to feel betrayed like he was. After all, Dash had never been _his_ friend. He was _Phantom's_ friend. And after what had happened Danny didn't think he even wanted that.

No, that wasn't quite right. He still wanted Dash's friendship. It had been _so great_ the past few weeks, getting to be with Dash, getting to know him. There was some sort of.. of _spark_ between them. There was no other way Danny could think to put it. Everything just, clicked.

But that had been when Dash Baxter, bully extraordinaire and quarterback King of Casper had been gone. While their little friendship remained untouched by the cruelties of high school. Now he was back to remind Danny of everything he hated about Dash. To remind him why they could never, _never_ be anything more than bully and punching bag. That loss stung more than anything.

"Danny?" Sam softly asked, softer hand on his shoulder.

Danny blinked away the anger that had risen in him. They were in front of two large doors, the words CASPER HIGH LIBRARY in big cold letters above. "What?"

Sam worried her lip "Tucker went in to find a table. You just kinda' stopped here. And started glaring at the door like you wanted to set it on fire. Your eyes went all," she waved her hand in front of her own face in a vague gesture that Danny knew probably meant they'd gone green. Sam leaned in close, the hand over his shoulder tightening a touch, concern welling in her violet eyes, "Are you sure you're okay."

Danny put his hand over Sam's, allowing himself that brief moment of hurt and comfort. "I'm fine Sam. Now let's get inside already," he pushed through the doors, plastering on a smile "I don't know about you but I wanna' get at least half of my math homework done by the end of the week."

"Danny wait, if you need to-"

"Might not even get detention if I've at least got _some_ of it done."

Sam huffed, realizing she wasn't going to get anywhere significant right then, and would have to leave the conversation for another time. They found the table Tucker sat at, secluded between two shelves in a corner in the very back, and spoke nothing more on the matter. Instead they discussed ghosts, their homework, DOOMED, ghosts again, planned parole for that night. Everything they always did.

Danny was okay with that.

He didn't need Dash's friendship, not when he had Sam and Tucker.

At least that's what he told himself as he flew over the town later that night. His direction was towards the Baxter household, intent on breaking things off with Dash.

He had Sam and Tucker. Friendship with Dash wasn't an option.

Soon he could see the house. Closer still he saw Dash's light was on.

He has Sam and Tucker, didn't want Dash.

He arrived at the window, ready to phase in. Dash wasn't there, but Danny expect he was in the house. Taking the moment he gathered himself. It would be quick, in and out. Like ripping off a bandaid.

He had two _best friends_ , he didn't ne-

Under him, a door slammed open harshly. Danny looked down to see Dash, wearing nothing but jeans and a tight V-neck, red T-shirt, storming from the front patio and down the drive. The front door opened again a moment later, a woman's voice calling harshly "Dashiel Baxter, don't you dare walk out while I am speaking to you! _Dash_! _DASH_! _Come back so help me_!" She sounded horse.

Dash, almost to the street, turned on his heel just as Danny turned invisible, giving him clear view of the fire in Dash's eyes. He hollered back, throat raw with some horrible blend of emotion that made Danny's heart bleed. "So help you _what_? _What more could you do_? _What is there left for you to take_?" He threw his arms open wide in a gesture that should have been inviting.

There were footsteps under the patio roof, presumably the woman Danny assumed was Dash's mother having walked to the edge. She made an attempt at schooling the anger from her voice, yet she spoke with hot severity "Dashiel I want you to came back inside this instant. I only want what's best for you."

"Best for me?" Dash yelled back, having lost none of his fury "who the fuck do you think you are? _Want what's best for me_?" He mocked.

"Language Dash! The neighbors will hear!"

"The _neighbors_?" Dash parroted, true offense on his face. "You're telling me you're worried about the fucking _neighbors_?"

"Dashiel this is your last warning, come inside this house immediately!"

"Fuck you!" Dash yelled again, reaching a higher, painfully desperate octave "Fuck you! Fuck this house! Fuck the neighbors! _Fuck this. Shit. Haunted. Town_!" Once more he turned, this time throwing his arms up in the air "Fuck it all right in the ass!"

His mother sputtered, she continued calling her son's name, interspersed with threats, groundings and invoking God, all the while looking this way and that for nosy neighbors, until Dash vanished around the edge of the fence. Finally she just panted, the angry breathing soon morphing in to soft sobs curling up around the roof. She cried, mumbled something Danny couldn't hear, and stumbled inside. She didn't lock the door.

Danny followed after Dash, finding him not even a block away, slumped against a light pole with his phone to his ear. His knees were drawn up to his chest, one arm slung around them, his head down. Once Danny got close enough he could hear Dash's side of the conversation. He spoke with an emotion clogged voice "I don't know Kwan, it's just... she's so..." there was a quiver in his voice, a quiver Danny had never herd before and it hurt many times more than the punch from earlier that day. "How does she expect me to be so perfect all the time? I'm not-" he choked then, and now Danny was close enough to see that he was shaking, his hands the worst. He gripped his phone with white knuckles trying to keep them steady. "I can't _be_ him." he whispered, tired. Defeated.

There was then silence from Dash, in which Danny could hear the garbled sounds of Kwan's voice on the other end. Dash sniffed eventually and answered "Yeah, yeah that sounds good. Thanks." He was quite again for a beat "By the red house with.. yeah with the weird dog." Kwan said something that seemed like it should have made Dash laugh, but the sound came out choked and broken. "Okay, see you soon. Bye"

Dash hung up and wrapped his second arm around his knees. He breathed in deep, tried to gather himself but in the breath out he broke down. He keened low and long, giving in to a veritable waterfall of tears.

Danny hung in the air, shell shocked. What had he just seen? Obviously an argument between mother and son, but it wasn't like Dash would react like _this_ to any old argument. Or would he? No, he wasn't the type.

Danny wanted to reach out, any notion of ending their friendship forgotten. He wasn't about to rub salt in whatever wound just opened by doing that.

It wasn't long before Kwan pulled up in a white Volvo, and luckily in that time Dash had managed to calm down some. Until then Danny hung by Dash, unsure of what to do. He didn't think they were close enough that Dash would want to share the details of whatever happened, and Kwan had been the first person he called, so Danny knew he'd be fine. But on the other hand Dash was obviously _hurting_ , and it hurt Danny in turn not being able to do anything.

Instead he resigned himself to waiting. Danny felt oddly protective, although for what he couldn't be sure, perhaps it was just his hero side that would always help someone in need. When Kwan arrived Danny felt very much like he was passing over something fragile and precious, from his hands to another's, even though neither football player was actually aware of his presence.

Kwan threw the passenger seat's door opened, sympathy on his face. "Shit Dash, you look like a mess."

Dash managed a wobbly smile "Wow, you know just what to say."

Kwan smiled sadly, "Come on. I've already got crappy beer in the backseat, we can swing by the drive-through and get equally crappy burgers."

Dash barked a horse laugh and rubbed his face tiredly "You know just what to say." He stood unsteadily, using the light pole for support, and all but fell in to the car. The door was closed a touch harder that it really needed, and Kwan drove away, taking the rest of the conversation with them.

With a heavy heart, Danny went to meet his friends for parole. Sam noticed something was wrong, she always did. Danny brushed her off.

He was doing a lot of that lately.

The school day after was horrendous. Dash was like a tornado, tearing trough the school and using every opportunity to seek and destroy. Word of Dash's volatile temperament spread quickly through Casper High's lower social rungs, most making quick work of avoiding the jocks.

It almost came as a relief when Danny's ghost sense went off at the tail end of first period. A relief, that is, until of course he meet the speedy little bugger that flew him in laps around the town, taking him out all of second, third and even some of fourth period. The only silver lining being that he wasn't in the school for most Dash's tirade.

Danny didn't rush flying back to, and then through the school once he'd finally managed to catch the ghost, having employed strategic traps and tricks as opposed to speed and agility, his usual go-to tactics. He was already beyond late, and utterly exhausted, a few extra minutes wouldn't make a difference.

He floated back through the school halls leisurely, catching his breath, listening to the snatches of classes he could hear through the doors as he passed them. However once he got closer to the classroom he was supposed to be in, he stopped in front of an innocuous row of lockers.

One of them belonged to Dash.

He hovered there, simply staring at the unassuming metal, a thought having dropped in to his mind. He wondered if it would be too intrusive. He almost though better if it, but a mental image of Dash from that morning, storms in his eyes and another of him from the night before presented themselves.

He stuck his head in through the door, finding the contents stacked haphazardly, but all the school necessities were there. However some looked relatively untouched, despite it being so late in the school year. It didn't take much rooting around to find a pen and notebook, Danny flipped it opened to a blank page scribbled and quick note.

 _You should talk to you friends if there's something bothering you, don't take it out on other people. We're here for you._

- _D_

That ought to do the trick.

It wasn't like he planned it all, Danny just wrote whatever came to mind. Even so, the moment he signed it he second guesses himself. Dash would know exactly who 'D' was, and would know exactly to which conversations he was referencing, but wasn't that the point?

Danny worried his lip, what was the point? Was he trying to change Dash? Comfort him? Support him? Regardless, he added quickly underneath, _P.S. I'll be you-know-where tonight_.

He left the note in the inside of the door, plastered to the surface with a little sticky ectoplasm. Even if he hadn't signed the note that alone would be enough of a tell.

Danny wasn't sure, until the end of the day, whether or not Dash had seen the note or not. He still thundered through the school, practically leaving scorched marks behind him for all that his anger burned. If anything it seemed worse than it had been that morning. By the end of the day Danny had been shoved in his locker no less than trice, Tucker and the other nerds of Casper faring little better.

But just as Danny and his friends were about to leave at the blissful end of the day, they passed Dash and Kwan out the main doors. Danny didn't think Sam or Tucker payed them much heed, nor did he think either football player notice the three of them, or anyone for that matter. They were engrossed in a conversation, Dash talking quickly and urgently, although Kwan seemed terribly at ease. It was only out for a second, but Dash held a bit of paper with a smear of green across the back, said something, only to then have Kwan snatch it away from his quick, but not quick enough, fingers.

"Yo Danny." Tucker poked him in the shoulder.

Danny jerked, returning his focus to his friends. Had he been staring? He didn't think he had, he'd only looked over for a second. "What?"

Tucker glanced in the direction Danny had been looking " _Come on_ , let's get out of here before they notice us."

"I don't think they've even noticed us dude." Dash made another grab for his note, but Kwan held it aloft, using his free hand to push his friend at bay.

"Who cares! I don't want to be here when they do!" With that Danny was dragged out.

True to his word, Danny sat ready on the picnic table later that evening, just as the sun began waning from the sky. He was alone there for almost twenty minutes, all the while wondering if Dash would even come. If Dash actually knew what Danny meant by 'you-know-where'. What he would say to Dash when he finally did show up.

Why he was even bothering.

In his boredom Danny started playing around with his new glow stick power, as much as he hated the ridiculous name he had to admit it was fitting, not that he'd ever admit that. He experimented idly with shapes and sizes, finding that it was rather difficult to make anything other than spheres. He'd managed at one point something like an ellipsoid, and another roughly cylindrical, but soon enough they both collapsed back in to circular forms. Eventually he tired of that as well, and heaving a sigh he lay back along the length of the table, entertaining himself by arranging and rearranging a number of the glowing orbs in various constellations he liked, leaving them to float above his head.

It was a rather fun, mindless sort of activity. But of course it was always the most mindless activities that best keep a person from dwelling on topics they wish not to dwell on.

"Hey."

Danny jerked up, eyes blown wide. On instinct alone he threw his hand out towards the sound, the glowing orbs flying after the reflexive ectoblast. The blast ripped strait through a thick branch, making it fall to the ground with a sickening crack, the little orbs exploded against nearby trunks and bushes, leaving black and smoking rings in their wake.

It took a short moment for Danny's eyes to adjust to the subsequent dark, even with his ghost powers augmenting his night vision. There, crouched in the long early evening shadows, felled branch beside, was Dash.

"What the hell Dash! Give me a warning next time I could have _killed_ you!" Danny yelled.

"Jesus I didn't mean to! I thought 'Hey' _was_ a warning!" Dash yelled back, just as startled, if not more, than Danny. He turned his head up, taking in the damage above him, right where his face had been not moments ago. "Jesus."

"Oh my god." Danny brought his hands to his face and scrubbed. "I seriously could have killed you. You can't just sneak up on me like that."

"Yeah." Dash said absently. He stood, curious fingers running along the bombarded tree. "Your Scorpio was cool though, y'know. Before it tried to kill me."

"That isn't anything to laugh about! I seriously could have actually really hurt you!"

Dash's only answer was a boyish grin thrown over his shoulder. "But you didn't."

Looking at it Danny realized Dash's was a face he couldn't stay mad at, not for very long at least. He rolled his eyes, muttering "Whatever." petulantly, fighting the betraying smile from his lips.

"So," Dash said casually, flipping around and leaning against the tree, one foot hiked up "practicing your new power Glowstick?"

In the back of his mind Danny noted the carful avoidance of the subject at hand, but he didn't mind all that much. This was good familiar, safe territory. Little jokes, light teasing, laughter. "Yeah, I wondered if I should try making actual sticks but I didn't want to give you any more excuses to use that name."

Dash snorted "Too late for that."

"Remind me to find an annoying nickname for you too." Dash laughed at that, bright as it always was, filling Danny again with that strange contentment that came with their easy interactions.

But it wasn't all that easy actually, not anymore. Danny looked down, a hand snaking up to the back of his neck. They both knew the reason Danny had asked for Dash, they both knew. Neither wanted to be the first to speak.

Danny much rather wanted to ignore Dash the bully, and his reasons for doing the things he did.

He didn't want to lose his friend.

* * *

 **God you guys have no idea how much I struggled with this chapter. You know how sometimes it just won't let itself be written? And you'll try a million and a half scenarios and none of them work? And you just hate it? Yeah... yeah.**

 **And of course in my idealistic head I figure "Yeah it's Christmas I'll totally manage a chapter a week I'll just write extra much and work extra hard and yay I love Christmas this is gonna' be great!" And then no. Just no.**

 **Okay I'm gonna' stop ranting now. Here's another chapter, enjoy. It's mostly filler but there's a lot of important details adrassed for later. Next chapter you can expect the entire thing, or mostly, being Danny and Dash together with lots of fluff and little angst and then more fluff because we like to ignore our feelings! Yay!**

 **Critisism is always appreciated!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 In which there are far too many feels than can be healthy for anyone

"Ah, listen," Danny hesitantly started, his fingers fidgeting nervously at the nape of his neck "You don't have to tell me what's going on or anything, I mean we don't even really know each other, but I figured I should just let you know that I'm here, y'know?"

Dash shifted his weight to one leg, opposite hand in his jeans pocket, it reminded Danny very much of when they first met up, that very calculated and disingenuous nonchalance. "Look, it's not like I've got anything going on really, just teenage stuff-"

"I also thought I should tell you that I was there yesterday, with your Mom, at least I'm assuming she's your Mom. Um, I was going to your place and got there just as you stormed out and you two were yelling at each other and then you ran off and called Kwan and-" Danny blurted in one great rush "and I'm sorry for intruding, it- it was an accident. But that doesn't change the fact that it happened and I saw and... I just want to help."

It was quite for a while, a long while. Danny kept his eyes trained down, the image of the Dash from school drifting through his mind. Would he be angry? Danny hoped not.

Dash sighed, making his way through the grass and sat down heavily next to Danny. "Shit."

Danny worried the inside of his cheek. "I know... sorry."

Again silence descended, oppressing in the enclosed clearing. By then the sun had dipped low in the sky, inching closer to the edge of the slumping trees. For lack of anything better to look at, Danny took to studying the scorched marks left behind in his accidental attack. It sure was a good thing Dash had such good reflexes. "This isn't gonna' work if the only way we can talk is by you just showing up randomly."

Danny almost jumped when Dash finally spoke. He turned to Dash, the quarterback looking up, watching the clouds drift across the yellowing sky. "Yeah." He said slowly, and idea forming "Yeah yeah, you're totally right. Give me your phone."

Dash glanced at him "My phone?"

"Mhm," Danny held his hand out expectantly "your phone. It's about time you had my number."

Dash looked taken aback "You have a phone?"

Danny chuckled "Don't look so surprised. C'mon."

Shock still on his features Dash reached in to his varsity jacket pocket and retrieved his cell, it was one of the new smart phone models Danny noted, Tucker had been drooling after them since they first started appearing on the market. He unlocked it and handed it over to Danny, a blank contact info page open.

Once filled out, Danny handed it back with a smile. "There, problem solved. Now I'll just text you, and vice versa. Or call, y'know, whatever."

Dash stared down at the screen "I didn't even ask for your number, I just assumed..."

"Well, you know what they say about assuming and making asses of ourselves."

Dash snorted. "You just wrote 'D' again, aren't you worried people will figure it it's for 'Danny'?"

Danny hopped off the table to float lazily in the air "No one has so far, although, it should go without saying that I'm not giving you this so you can run around advertising the fact that you have it... For your sake as much as mine, don't want to make you a target." Or any more of a target, after all, Vlad did already know, although he had yet to act in any way.

"Well if that's your reason..." Dash answered cheekily, his fingers already moving across the screen. Before Danny could ask what he was doing, Dash flipped the phone around to show a new name.

Glowstick.

"Oh come on!" Danny exclaimed, pulling a face.

Grinning triumphantly Dash answered "Too late, it's already saved. Deal."

"I will get you back one day Dash, mark my words."

"Mhm," Dash hummed smugly, leaning back to stretch across the picnic table. His shirt hiked up, revealing a sliver of dark, toned abs. "I'm sure you will. I know you're a super crazy-powerful ghost but you're just a softie."

"I am _not_."

Dash didn't deign to respond, instead sighing contentedly and basking in the last baleful rays of the evening. Staring down at Dash from his hover, Danny rubbed at his neck. Dash was guarded, and much like Danny he was quick to hide behind a fist or a smile. But that didn't mean he couldn't and didn't open up, he had many times so far to Danny.

It was only when Dash cracked an eye open did Danny realize he'd been staring since Dash had lain down "So you're not gonna' say anything then?"

"Say anything?" Danny asked back, cocking his head to one side.

Dash shifted slightly under the scrutiny "Its just... I don't want to just be quiet. It's awkward."

"Oh. I... sorry, I was just thinking I guess." Danny turned away, to the far end of the sky opposite of the sun. It was splashed with clouds shrouded in dark reds and purples. "Hey, I have an idea" looking back down he continued, "So this is kind of, like, your place, right? And we've been here a while, so, I figured since you'd shown me here, I could maybe show you somewhere I like to go sometimes."

Dash's face was alight with curiosity "Sounds awesome."

"Great." Danny twisted in the air, raising his arms high above his head and reveling in the satisfying and very audible pops, first two, then a third, louder one. He floated over Dash, offering his hand.

Dash was slightly hesitant in reaching up. "You're not gonna' carry me like a girl again, are you?"

"Honestly Dash it was one time, I'm sure you can forgive me." All he got for answer was an unconvinced grin, at which Danny afforded himself an eye roll "Don't worry, I'll carry you like a dude. Patrons of Phantom airlines can always expect to keep their masculinity in tact." He joked, cupping his free hand over his mouth to muffle his voice slightly, as if over bad speakers.

With a laugh Dash reached out and like before, Danny drew him in close and wrapped his other arm securely around Dash's waist. All he needed was a quick grin and nod of consent, before he kicked off. It seemed as though Dash still wasn't entirely comfortable in the air, but Danny only smiled at that. Sam had always loved flying with him, and Tucker had over the years learned tolerance.

The air was comfortably cool, even as high as they were heading, and it made Danny's mind feel fuzzy. He could feel Dash's distinctly human warmth pressed all along his side, one strong arm wrapped securely around his back and ending with an equally warm palm gripping his shoulder. Dash's breathing, Dash's smell, even his heart beat all practically attacking Danny's senses.

Danny swallowed and tried to concentrate on flying strait. Under them drifted the park and office buildings, the streets and mall and stores, and finally the sprawling suburbia growing out like roots from the city proper.

Danny felt Dash's vocal chord vibrating rather than heard when he said, or possibly mumbled, something. "What?" He yelled, voice raised to carry over the air whistling past them.

"Flying is really fucking cool."

Danny shivered, for Dash had not spoken as Danny did. No, instead he turned and all but buried his face in Danny's hair, whispering against his ear, almost so that his lips brushed the lobe.

Danny's pulse spiked, and he involuntarily drew back with a shuddering gasp, a surge of something bright and prickly shooting down his spine and settling low in his stomach. However there was no need, Dash had turned away again, gone as quickly as he'd been there. Suddenly the air felt too cold on Danny's face, already the hot breath having been whisked away. Suddenly everything, everything but Dash himself, felt far too cold.

Danny studiously averted his eyes, he didn't want to know if Dash was looking at him. If he wasn't. Instead Danny locked on to their destination, relief flushing over him as they touched down and he could put some much needed space between them.

They'd arrived at the large Amity Park water tower standing close to the marshlands surrounding the lake. In one direction was Amity Park itself, the other thick forest, over which Danny would fly whenever he needed to go to Wisconsin. Danny liked the tower, with its high stilts and rusted ladder, few people ever dared up it, in fact since he began using it as his designated thinking place, or his tower of solitude as Tucker and Sam had so affectionately named it, far away from the rest of humanity, only one person person had ever climbed up, and that man had simply been a maintenance worker. A slim, barely two feet wide walkway ran the circumference of the container, old wood stained, old paint pealing.

Danny dropped them down harder than intended, stumbling back himself in the effort to get away from Dash and regain his bearings. His face burned, contrasting greatly to the accidental trail of ice he left between them. Danny stared, transfixed for a moment at the frost curling around the edges of the walkway, up the railing along the side, and touching on the three first letters of the town's name, painted large, white and bold on the tower's side.

Dash also stared "Um, Danny, are you oka-"

"So we're here!" Danny said loudly, turning on his heel and kicking off, flying around to the west side of the tower. "Over this way is the sun." he called over his shoulder.

Danny heard soft footfalls beside him. "This is where you wanted to show me?"

The sun would set soon, and now they had a proper view. "Yeah, I don't come here a lot, but it's high up and away enough from town that it's too much of a hassle for most people, it's a nice place to be alone." He'd brought both Sam and Tucker here on several occasions as well, especially when he and Sam had been dating.

Dash laughed "If you had this place up your sleeve why'd we keep meeting in the park? This is way better."

"I don't bring just anyone here." He's answered more honestly than he'd intended before he could think better of the confession, not that it was a confession. Because it wasn't. Not like a _confession_ confession, there was nothing to confess. "I mean, it's like- you- I mean me- I mean-" he took a breath and said deliberately " _I mean_ , we're friends. And I only have two friends, and what I mean to say is-"

"I get what you mean." Dash mercifully interrupted Danny's awkward rambling, even if he was unsure why he was even rambling in the first place. "We're friends."

Danny finally chanced a brief glance at the jock, finding him standing with a slight slouch favoring his good side, with one supporting hand on the railing. and an intense yet unreadable expression directed out over the forest. The sun, as Danny had found himself noticing quite often, had a way of shining off Dash's hair at this time of day, so that the locks looked like flowing liquid gold. The evening light casting everything in a soft warm glow, playing off Dash's tanned, flushed skin beautifully. The jock was looking out over the forest, intent blue eyes focused. Danny was momentarily glad Dash wasn't looking at him, unsure what he would have done with himself had he been the subject of such a look.

Independently of each other they sat down almost simultaneously. Dash leaning against the tower, one leg hiked up to rest his arm on, the other stretched out so his ankle went over the edge, Danny with both his legs hanging. He leaned his chin onoa relatively rust free part on the lower rung of the two hard steel beams of the railing, relishing in the smooth, sun warm surface. Danny allowed his eyes to fall closed, content to enjoy this rare moment of absolute peace he somehow found in the middle of his insane double life. The sun, the water tower, the spectacular view.

Dash an arms length away.

"Who's your other friend?" Dash eventually asked.

"What?"

"You said you have two friends, right, so there's me," he ticked off a finger "and someone else. Is he a ghost or something?"

It took a second for Danny to catch up to what Dash meant "Who's the other.. Oh." He snorted "No no, I meant I have two _other_ friends. Now three, counting you. And no, they're both human."

"Oh. So, what're they like?" Dash reiterated.

Danny smiled wide "They're awesome. We've known each other since basically forever. One of them is probably the smartest person I know. Man, if people knew what he did with his tech, he's the reason I win most of the time against Skulker and Technus and a bunch of other ghosts. And the other one is really bold and opinionated and will literally never back down from a fight. I'd know," he smiled to himself now, "I tried to keep them out of fights when we first started but she always charged in anyway. With her it's basically easier just to give in and let her have her way."

"They sound great."

"They are." Danny agreed easily, smiling to himself, mostly at the absurdity of Dash Baxter calling Sam and Tucker great, even if he didn't know that's what he'd done. He did feel a growing guilt though, keeping this whole thing with Dash from them, and in turn his whole life from Dash. Especially now that Sam had caught wind that something was up. He knew she'd figure it all out one way or another, eventually, he knew he'd have to deal with everything at some point. But for now he was sitting in the sun with Dash, so for the moment, he was content with complacency to his situation.

"How'd you meet them?"

Danny turned to said Dash "You want to know how I met them?" A shrug was his only answer. "Dash, why are you so curious all of a sudden? You haven't asked about my other friends before."

Another shrug. "Just curious I guess." He wouldn't meet Danny's eyes.

"Dash." He still didn't answer. "Fine, you can either tell me or I'll just overshadow you to read your mind."

This had Dash whirling around. " _You can do that_?"

"Maybe I can, maybe I can't." Danny said mildly.

With dubious concession Dash said slowly "Fine. I was-" he hesitate half a moment "I guess I was just wondering... why you chose me."

"What do you mean?"

Dash worried his lower lip "I dunno'. I mean, it sounds like your other friends are really cool, plus they help with ghost fighting and stuff, so like, why the hell are you here with _me_. Why did you bring _me_ , _here_."

Danny paused, unsure of what Dash was getting at. "Why I chose you?" He parroted stupidly. For the third time Dash shrugged, now with what could have been perceived as a blush, but it could also just be the light from the low hanging sun, which had finally begun to dip under the uneven forested horizon. It cast everything in a warm and orange glow, at odds with Dash's apparent unease "Can you stop shrugging and just explain what you're trying to say?"

Dash had his face turned away, a frown marring his otherwise happy features "It's just that you're a hero. But, I mean it's crazy but now I know you're not just a hero but also a _good guy_. A _really_ good guy."

Danny waited, but when nothing more was forthcoming he prodded with a gentle "And..?"

"And," Dash swallowed, his frown deepening, drawing his eyebrows down as well, the next words coming out slightly louder, a slightly higher pitch "And, why the hell are you hanging out with me? Anyone would want to be your friend!"

"I'm your friend because I like you Dash." Danny said slowly, feeling as though he was missing some vital clue.

"You shouldn't!" Dash was inching dangerously close to hysterics, with an edge of anger in his voice that Danny really didn't want to hear. Last time he heard that edge he was punched in to the nurse's office.

Danny turned around so that he fully faced Dash, a heavy sigh on his lips. He crossed his legs and leaned forward, palms on his knees, settling into to a comfortable hover just an inch off the walkway. Looks like they were going to have this conversation anyway. "Okay, can you look me in the eyes and explain what's happening in that big blond head of yours? I can't _actually_ read your mind so you're gonna' have to help me out here. _Why_ , exactaly, shouldn't I like you?" He kept his voice firm.

Dash's frown twitched in what might have been a hint at a smile, and Danny took that for a win, however small.

Only to see Dash cover the smile with an overly falsified one "You know what? Forget I said anything, it's really not important."

Dash made to get up but Danny shot a hand out, grabbing his wrist "Wait! It obviously _is_ important."

Dash, now standing, and dragging Danny up with him, tried to shake out of the hold, but strong as Dash was he was still only human. Instead he settled in growling "No it's _not_. Let go!" And there it was again, that fire in his eyes that Danny had come to forget, that heat, that anger.

Instinctually Danny wanted to shrink away, but he swallowed his bubbling nerves and pressed "I won't until you _calm_ _down_." He pressed Dash against the tower to punctuate his last words, only halfmindedly concerning himself of Dash's injuries.

"I thought you said I didn't have to say anything?"

Danny floated up slightly to look the taller boy in the eyes. They were close, too close, and Danny could feel Dash's hot breath on his lips "Well I changed my mind, whatever is happening is making you upset and you're obviously just ignoring it" and God help him for taking this next quote from Jazz "and I think you should just _talk_ about it. Please Dash." He looked up imploringly " _Please_."

Something finally seemed to break, and mercifully Dash slumped heavily against the tower. Danny still kept each wrist pinned, but he did loosen his hold and allow more than a split hair's distance between them "I'm not... I'm not a good guy, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? I'm not a good guy like you, I don't help people and everything I do no matter what is somehow _wrong_ , and _I'm_ wrong. Okay?" Now Dash did succeed in shaking off Danny's grip. "I'm just... I'm not _like_ you, so I don't know why you're bothering to spend any of your time with me."

Danny was at a loss of what to say. "You don't really think that about yourself, do you? I don't know who told you that but you're not wrong, Dash." At no response he pressed on "Seriously Dash, you're really not. I mean, sure you've got a bit of a temper, but we all get angry sometimes, that doesn't make you evil. I've seen evil. You are _not_ evil, you're just... a bit of a jerk sometimes, but it's not like you can't change that."

At that Dash snorted derisively "Bit late for that."

"It's never too la-"

"Oh my god save it. See this is what I'm talking about, no matter what, all you ever go on about is 'second chances' and 'changing' and 'starting over'. Well not everyone is like that, some of us are fucked up from when we were born and there's nothing we can do about that! So if everyone says I'm wrong then why the hell bother try to be anything else?"

That stuck a chord with Danny, and despite himself he felt his own anger flare "Okay now I _know_ that's a load of bull. Do you have any idea how many people in town think I'm a menace? Evil? A bigger danger than any of those other ghosts that actually attack and hurt people? It doesn't matter what people say! The only things that _actually_ matters at the end of the day is what you do."

Dash turned away then, and pressing one white knuckled hand on the tower wall like he was trying to bruise it. "Fuck you." Dash let the words drip from his mouth like poison.

"Please," Danny answered, not meaning for it to sound quite so condescending. At a loss for anything else, and quickly reaching the end of his patience, Danny fell back on what he did best, goading banter. "I'm sure you can do better than that. Dig deep and I bet you'll find a whole rainbow's worth of colorful insults."

Before Danny even had the chance to draw another breath he was down. Sharp pain, blinking lights and ringing in his ears all mingling with an odd feeling of dejà-vu. Absently he touched a hand to his face, hissing at the white hot pain. Above him he heard a startled "Shit- I, _fuck_."

Danny looked up, in time to see Dash back away, looking down at him with a pale face, one hand over his gaping mouth, the other braced on the wall. Danny dimly noted a smattering of green, glowing faintly in the low light, smeared across it. Dash looked like, well, he looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Dash-" Danny tried to say, surprised at the charcoal taste of ectoplasm on his tongue. Somehow he didn't think Dash could pack quite that much of a punch, but then again, perhaps he should have expected as much.

Dash himself was gone in the blink of an eye, followed by the sounds of the rusty ladder clattering. But Danny only kept half an ear out for it, instead staring in daze out over the wilderness. He had no idea exactly how long he'd been sitting there, without even floating, just sitting. Blankly. But his face had long since stopped throbbing, and everything but the very furthest corners on the sky had turned deep indigo.

On his flight home he took a couple rounds around central Amity, for once disappointed at the curious absence of hostile ghosts. For lack of anything better to expend his energy at, he started shooting clouds untill he ran out of anger.

* * *

 **Hello hello hello my people. Well I'm back. Thank you thank so much for the patience of whoever is still reading this. I can't thank you enough for sticking through this hiatus. But we're back in business baby!**

 **And just in case any of you may be wondering, I know it says ''slow burn' but I can sense some of you getting impatient, so you'll be happy to hear that we're getting close to a _confession_ confession, as Danny put it. So look forward to that!**

 **As always reviews are the lifeblood of everyone on here! Criticism is always appreciated!**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: In which the readers are no doubt getting impatient with all these heavy chapters but the author promises the next one is _hype_

The coming weeks were... in a sense less trying than Danny might've guessed. But in another they were hell.

In a little traitorous part of his mind he was almost a little glad that all he had going on was 'just' teen drama, and that he didn't really have any great supernatural menace that threatened all of humanity on his back. Well, no _major_ threat in any case. But it sucked. It really really _sucked_ and he hated it.

Dash wouldn't talk to him. That was the problem. He'd sent one message that read only "stay away frm me" and hadn't responded after that once. Oh Danny had tried, he'd sent so many back, tried calling too, and he was willing to admit that it did seem just a little, well a lot, desperate. But he felt desperate, Danny was reluctant to physicaly go to Dash's house again, afraid that he'd worn out his poping-in-out-of-nowhere welcome.

Not that one could call it a welcome persay, but that had never stopped Danny before.

Perhaps it hadn't been so bad if the universe wasn't apparently so intent on punshing the two of them together. The entire week following their argument they'd somehow ended up in detention together every single day from a series of unfortunate coincidents Murphy himself would be proud of. Everything from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, to being misaccused of some petty mishap, to homework mysteriously going missing, falling asleep in class, and the ever infamous late to class. Everything under the sun. And the list didn't stop there. At one point the sprinklers malfunctioned and a whole corridor was sectioned off, forcing Danny to walk past Dash's locker far more often than usual. And no less than three times, _three_ , had the fire alarm been set off, forcing him out of clases that were supposed to be Dash free, making them reuinte with the rest of the school outside. Call it paranoia, but he would also swear up and down that the throng of students thickened every time he and Dash would walk past each other, forcing them closer.

And the small hopeful part of Danny that ever thought the weekend might bring some sweet relief, Friday turned in to a horrible, awful, cherry on top an even worse ice cream Sunday of disaster. The ghosts, having quite suddenly and without warning returned to Amity, seemed maddeningly determined to circle Sam's neighborhood, and by extension Dash's. Although the silver lining was that Sam was taking a certain delight in keeping a large ectoblaster by the bay window of her room and consequently had something other than Danny's behaviour to occupy herself with.

Dash was of course and absolute menace at school through all this. Biting and barking at his own friends as easily as whatever unfortunate nerd happened by him at any given moment. Kwan was still making and effort, but it seemed that only turned Dash away, as he had to Danny. So instead he stewed alone. He was obviously miserable, but Danny couldn't bring himself to be _only_ sorry for him. With the way he was acting he deserved adeserved a little karma.

Even so, Danny knew he had to do something. He just had no idea what. He wanted to make things right, knowing that in truth that responsibilty ought to fally to Dash himself, but also knew he was stubborn and angry and wouldn't do a damn thing about it.

A pale hand waved in front of his face. "Hey Danny!" Sam exclaimed. "Are you even listening?"

"Huh? Yeah yeah, I'm definitely listening." He answered, sitting a little straighter in the plush seat of the Manson's basement theater.

"Really? Then what was the movie about?"

"Uhh," Danny stalled, glancing at the screen. Black. "Zombies?"

Sam rolled her eyes, "Wow, Zombie Highschool was about zombies, good job." She leaned back and crossed her arms, staring at him contemplatively. "Are okay?" She asked " _Really_ okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah of course I am." his hand snaked around to the back of his neck.

"Because you've been acting a weird for weeks now. Tucker and I have been talking, and we're still worried about you."

"You've been talking about me?" Danny blurted, then as an after thought, only then noticing the abcence, he looked around and asked "Where is Tucker anyway?"

Sam rolled her eyes "Bathroom. Tuck owes me five now, he didn't think you were spaced enough not to notice."

"Oh, um, you're welcome?"

"Who's welcome?" the friend in question asked, just as he reentered the room. "Ey! Looks like you got him talking Sam, welcome back to the world of the living." He grinned, slumping heavily in the seat between Sam and Danny.

"Look, you guys don't have to be worried I'm fine. _No really_." He added for good measure, at the unimpressed looks from his friends.

"Because anyone who says 'no really' we can trust." Tucker snorted.

"Besides," Sam said casually "it's easy to guess what's been bothering you."

"What!" Danny all but yelled. They had guessed? They knew? How did they know? Did Sam work it out? Did Tucker? Had they perhaps seen him with Dash? "But- but how?"

Sam only grinned indulgently "You're really not as good a lier as you think you are."

"Well, not to us." Tucker added

"I- you-" Danny stumbled, staring at them. They didn't look hurt, or betrayed. Hell, or even angry. They both smiled pleasantly at him. Warm, kind, if a little concerned.

They glanced at each other, and Danny felt his heart clench. Tucker cleared his throat. "I mean, I dunno' if we're _cool_ , you shouldn't have lied to us man. I mean, we're your _best friends_."

"But we get it," Sam quickly added "It's..." she paused, looking for the right words "It's not like we've got the best track record with him."

Danny barked a short laugh "No. I guess not." He smiled to himself, not for the first time grateful for how fantastic his friends were. "I um... I am sorry though. For not telling you. I guess after a while things just escalated and I didn't really know how and I still don't really know how I fee-" Danny was interrupted by a light fist on his arm.

Sam, having reached over Tucker's shoulders, retracted her hand with an eye roll. "Jesus you make it sound like it was this whole thing."

"But I-"

"We get it." They both answered sternly.

"What we've got to do now is make a game plan." Sam continued, her voice serious.

Danny furrowed his brows. "A game plan?" It was one thing that they were more or less okay with his whole stint in to friendship with the quarterback, but why a game plan? Not that he thought Sam or Tucker would want him to be distraught over something, but he might have expected Sam to be a little pleased that things with Dash had ended, if that was indeed the case, as they had. It would have given her the perfect argument for the 'Dash is just a brute incapable of handling complex emotions' team.

Not only that, but Dash had been studiously ignoring him, ignoring just about everyone that mattered qto him really, of late. It seemed like there was little more to be done on the matter.

"Well yeah," Sam said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And despite himself Danny's heart swelled with fondness for Sam, he had never expected her to be so willing to set aside her own prejudice against the popular people for Danny's pursuit of happiness.

Tucker was nodding along in consent, having by then brought out his PDA, the screen flashing with coding Danny couldn't begin to decipher. Tucker Danny could understand, Phantom's friendship with Dash Baxter was possibly the first step to wedging open the door to the A-listers for them, and furthermore the cheerleaders to Tucker himself.

But Sam, it seemed so unlike her. So out of character. But Danny supposed that spoke of the depth of the friendship in their little trio.

"He's obviously up to something."

Wait what.

"Have you been to his house yet?"

"Um," Danny mumbled, left with the distinct feeling like he was maybe missing something vitally important "not lately?"

"Well that's what we'll do then. You can phase us in, and thanks to Tucker we can finally do some real digging."

What?

Sam nudged Tucker, saying "C'mon, show him how you managed to hack his computer."

Hack his-

Oh.

 _Oh_.

"Vlad." Danny said the name as if it were a great revelation and horrible poison in equal measure.

"Boom baby!" Tucker exclaimed, proudly showing the screen of his device to Danny like his friend wasn't awash with the icy realization that the entire conversation for the last several minutes was actually about his arch enemy.

"Dude you should be more excited about this. I've been working at hacking him for ages." Of course he had. Because what else would they be talking about. What else was ever more important that the ever present problem that was Vlad Masters and ghost attacks.

Danny shook his head. He had to get his thoughts strait, it wouldn't do to start griping over his never ending battle against the supernatural in Amity Park, not now. Not after so long. With some difficulty he derailed his thoughts entirely from Dash, because at the end of the day regardless of Danny's bitterness Vlad _was_ still an issue. And he _was_ obviously up to something, as Sam had been saying all along. And it _was_ Danny's responsibility to ensure that his evil plans never came to completion.

Dash had to wait.

"Helloooo!" Tucker waved his PDA in front of Danny's face. "Master hacker, me, hours of work, I'm amazing. Talk to us man."

"Right! Yeah! How'd you finally do it?"

Tucker delved in to a long winded explanation that took great care in laying bare all the evidence for his brilliance. Danny allowed to himself to be absorbed in the evening and planning the raid on Vlad's lab. They decided on Sunday midday, as Vlad, according to the schedule Tucker had procured, was set to travel to Wisconsin that day.

They set out for patrol soon after, seeing as the ghosts had suddenly decided to return. Danny put aside his thoughts of quarterbacks and teen drama, they had bigger things to worry about.

That was at least untill twenty past two.

The three of them, winded from a good night's work, bid each other goodbye and headed to their respective homes. Danny found himself detoured by one last annoyingly giggling blob of ectoplasm. It took a couple minutes but he of course finally managed to nab it.

However it was only then that he registered exactaly what he had been flying over. Where else, but over the park. And of course the night was clear an full of stars, so of course Dash was there. On that little knoll where it felt like this all began.

Danny gazed below, worring his lip and wondering whether or not he should go down there. Dash had for sure seen him but then, if he was there for stargazing no way he had missed two brightly glowing ghosts in the dark night.

But... he hadn't left. There would have been plenty of opportunity while Danny was giving chase to the other ghost. And if he'd left during the fight Danny would have been none the wiser.

Was that an invitation?

Once close enough Danny saw Dash hunched over his phone, feet on the one bench and seated on the tabletop. The now familiar telescope baside him, ignored for the time being. So he hadn't been paying attention to the sky? From his aerial vantage Danny couldn't see Dash's face, there was nothing he could look for to discern his temperament.

Danny lowered himself from the sky, dipping in to invisibility as he did. Coming to a steady hover just behind the jock. Before he could work out what he wanted to say, or even why he wanted to say anything in the first place, Dash heaved a heavy sigh and stowed his phone away in his varsity jacket pocket. "What are you doing here?" He demanded, making little effort to conceal the bite in his voice.

Danny wasn't sure himself, so instead he asked "Can I sit?" Dash's only answer was a non-committal shrug. Danny took it as a yes regardless, and settled in to floating just above the tabletop opposite, back to back. The fibers of Dash's jacket brushed against Danny's spine ever so slightly, just enough to feel close without actually touching.

Silence stretched for what couldn't have been more than a minute or so, regardless of how long it felt, untill Dash finally said "You didn't answer me."

"You haven't been answering your phone." Danny quipped back.

Danny hoped for a more positive response, a snort, a huff, a chuckle, anything. Instead he got "I told I wasn't good. You shouldn't be around me." There was something heartbreaking in how resigned and miserable he sounded.

"You can't really think that." Dash scoffed, making Danny purse his lips in frustration "Seriously. So you have an anger problem. Lots of people do. It's not like that can't chan-"

"Oh would you shut up about changing!" Dash suddenly exclaimed, slipping seamlessly in to the stormy temper of their argument the week before. "I _can't change_ , okay! Do you get it?"

Feeling completely out of his depth, and perhaps somewhere in the back of his mind wishing Jazz was there to help him find the words, he stammered "O-of course you can. I can help."

"No you can't! Not with this! I _can't_ change _what_ I am." He finished bitterly. Danny felt the heat from their close proximity disappear and on reflex turned and threw a hand up, reaching blindly for Dash. He intended to grab his sleeve, or his arm, instead his fingers brushed the other teen's knuckles, and closed around his hand.

Dash stoped short, sucking a shuddering gasp, his eyes wide, pupils blown large in the dim light of the night. They simply stared at each other over their interlocked fingers. Danny didn't have the chance to even attempt desifering Dash's shocked and somewhat awed expression, too busy trying to work out the meaning behind the 'what'. "What you are?" Danny murmured, still staring up at Dash, like his face might tell him what his words weren't "I don't... I don't understand."

Dash's hand shook, and his palm was clammy. He tore his eyes away and looked down, darkness overcoming his features "Just forget it." He tried to shake Danny from his grip, but that only made him tighten it.

Before Danny could give himself the chance to think through what he was about to say he blurted "I've seen an evil version of myself from the future that destroyed Amity Park and everyone in it."

"What the fuck!" Dash yelled in surprise. He looked at Danny again, blaring alarm and something that seemed horrified or disturbed written across his features.

With a sudden sinking pit in his stomach at what he was about to explain, Danny gently tugged Dash down again. When he sat, Danny turned back around, dropping the hand he held, immediately and inexplicably missing it. Dash waited patiently, whether in shock or in understanding, Danny didn't know, but whichever it was he was grateful.

"I never told you about how I met Clockwork, did I? I uh... I don't always make the best decisions, and I had to learn that the hard way. The _really_ hard way. Sometimes I get caught up in trying to make things easier for myself and taking shortcuts and getting more power." Danny swallowed, almost stumbling on the last word. Power corrupts too easily, he had seen that both in himself and others too often to deny that, and he had fallen prey to its greed more times that he cared to admit. But he made himself press on, if he didn't get this out now that he'd started he never would. "I met a version of myself from the future that made a mistake like that when he was my age now. He, well _I_ cheated. And that lead to everyone I care about dying in an explosion. And that me got so messed up and twisted with grief that he... he um, he ripped out half of himself. And killed the half that was left." Danny whispered by the end. In part relieved, but the other part deeply, deeply ashamed.

The silence hung between them, Danny had hunched over himself, staring at his white gloves, not for the first time wondering if he still had that evil potential. He felt the familiar sting of guilt for what he _could_ do clawing at his throat and behind his eyes. His breath hitched in surprise when a palm landed on his left forearm. Dash was looking at him earnestly, brows knit together. "But that's not you."

Danny forced a smile, though he was aware it ironically might have made him look even sadder. "No, but it was close, too close. I couldn't beat him fast enough, and the only reason no one died in this timeline is because Clockwork came and saved them for me. He gave me a second chance."

"But... that means problem solved, right? You changed the future." Dash's mouth sneared slightly, obviously trying to work out the implications of what he was being told.

Danny couldn't help but laugh, low and incredulous. "Not really. If I learnt anything it's that the future isn't set in stone, for better or for worse. All it means that I didn't turn in to a rampaging evil murdering monster by changing _one_ mistake. That doesn't mean I won't make mistakes now, or later. If wanted to I could go and destroy half of Amity right this minute. It sounds super cliché but with great power comes great responsibility. I... have to help people, I have to because the alternative is unthinkable."

Dash gulped next to him, audible in the still night. "Shit man, that's... that's a lot."

Danny scoffed. "Yeah. You're telling me." Danny leaned back, against Dash, resting his head on the taller boy's shoulder, and staring up at the sparkling sky. At that angle it became awkward for Dash to keep holding on, but he gave Danny's arm a light squeeze before letting go, for that he was thankful. "The Fenton's say that all ghosts are inherently evil. I know that's a load of BS but sometimes there's a little part of me that wonders if it's really true."

"I think that's more a people thing and not a ghost thing." Dash's voice sounded thick.

"Yeah but there's a difference between mean and evil." Dash didn't say anything after that, so Danny instead took to listening to his breathing and feeling his strong heartbeat through the layers of their clothes. Perhaps it was because when Danny was ghost form he was so cold, or because Dash was simply a person with a naturally high resting temperature, but the heat that seeped through his hazmat was very noticable.

But also quite reassuring, the warmth. It felt as if it transfered between them, going from Dash to Danny, settling low in his stomach like a content purr.

Neither of them said anything further, Danny thinking the conversation more or less rounded off. It was one thing to know Dash had a secret Teddy bear collection, or liked old black and white movies and soap operas, or to tell him about some of his less than heroic episodes or that he secretly really likes the creative writing assignments given to them by Lancer. Now he felt raw and exposed in a way he hadn't in a very long time.

Just as Danny found himself succumbing to his l fatigue with drooping eyelids, Dash rasped "I just don't know how."

"What?"

"I don't know how to stop. I dunno', I just... I get angry and everything goes red and I just-" the words hung heavily over them, choked off mid sentence.

Danny turned halfway, his shoulder still pressing against Dash, and reached around with his right hand, settling it on his shoulder. "Dash... it's okay you know." Dash glanced back at him with a lazy look of disbelief. "Fine, not okay." Danny floated around the table and settled in the air next to Dash. "I mean, maybe it sounds like a terrible thing to say, but at least you're aware, right? You know what you're doing, and you know it's wrong, which obviously isn't okay but it's better than if you were totally oblivious, right?"

"And that's supposed to make me feel better or something?"

"Yeah. Look, some of the worst vilians I've had to fight are the ones that think what they're doing is right. Hurting people is... just an means to and end for them. And that's super freaky deaky 'cause you never know what they'll justify doing next. What you're doing, it's just mindless violence. Which isn't _good_ , don't get me wrong, but it's not evil. Sorry if I sound like a brokened record but that means you _can_ change."

"But I can't."

Danny sighed deeply. "Look, you're obviously sorry about what you did to me, which, by the way, you haven't apologized for yet, so start there. Say you're sorry to me."

"You didn't get hurt too bad?"

"Nothing I can't handle, you _are_ only human."

"Good. And, I _am_ sorry. Just so you know."

Danny bumped his knee against Dash's "I know." He smiled at, but Dash was looking up at the stars. "What about football? Wouldn't you get out a little agression on the field?"

Dash scratched his cheek "Yeah... I guess I do. But it's not like I'm playing football twenty-four seven."

"Well, what do you other times? Besides beating people up that is." Dash only shrugged. "What about Kwan?"

"Kwan's kinda' pissed at me." Dash answered miserably.

Danny rolled his eyes, "Oh really? And could that be because you've been acting pissy to him? Obviously I'm not the only one that's owed an apology."

"Yeah yeah you're right."

Dash was again looking up again. His shoulders didn't seem quite as heavy as they had earlier that night, but even so he wasn't happy. Danny longed to see his smile again, to hear his laugh. Danny wanted his friend back, the friend he lo- cared about.

Danny quickly turned his face away, willing away his sudden blush with his ice powers and subconsciously inching away from Dash. But not enough that Danny didn't notice his shiver. "Christ is that you? Its _freezing_!"

"Ah sor-" Danny stoped short, an idea forming rapidly in his mind. "Give me your hands!"

"What? Why?"

"Just do it!" Despite his dubious expression, Dash held out his hands, palm up. Danny took them, ignoring the thrill at the contact, stowing it away deep in his mind where he wouldn't examine what it meant. He focused his powers through both their hands, forming a small oblong ice crystal, about the height and width of his clamshell when opened. "There." He said, once he was satisfied with it.

Dash only looked confused, "There... what?" He squinted in the dark "Dude I can't see shit."

Laughing, Danny lit a few ecto-orbs, as he had decided to call them, above their heads. "Better?"

"Yeah..." Dash answered slowly, now able to see the crystal. "You made a, um, diamond?" He moved to pluck it from the air, hissing in surprise. "That's _cold_!"

"It's supposed to be, it's made of _ice_."

"Okay, but why are you giving me this?" Dash held the crystal up to the light of one of the orbs, turning it around in his fingers, making the light bounce off it in way that it gave the impression of glowing faintly green.

"It's a reminder. Keep it in your pocket, and next time you feel yourself getting angry, grab on to _that_ instead of some poor guy's shirt. Use it as a distraction untill you can talk to Kwan or call me."

"Won't it melt?"

"It shouldn't. I channeled my power through your hands so as long as you have it, it should be fine."

"Huh," Dash brought the crystal down, grasping it firmly in his fist, his eyes boring in to Danny's "didn't know you could do that "

Danny shrugged with a slight joking grimace " _Well_... I don't really know if it _will_ work. The real test is if it stays intact after I've left."

"So?"

"So what?"

"So get out of here!" Dash made a shooing motion with a grin "I wanna' see what happens."

Danny rolled his eyes "Is that your way of trying to kick me out? This is a public park you know." At the face Dash pulled Danny laughed again "Chill man. I should probably get going anyway. It's late." He said, stretching his arms over his head, feeling exhausted both physicaly and emotionaly.

"I didn't really mean-"

"It's _fine_ Dash, really. And I really am tired. Besides, so long as you stop ignoring my texts we'll keep in touch."

"Um, right. Yeah of course."

"Need a lift home?" Danny asked, floating up in the air and extinguishing the orbs.

Dash blinked at the sudden darkness. "No I've got my car."

"Alright." Danny said, moving to fly away. At the last minute he changed his mind, diving down again to grab Dash's hand. It wasn't like they hadn't already been holding each other's all night, it wasn't that weird. Dash jerked in surprise, making a small undignified sound that Danny though was just hilarious.

"What now? Leave or don't, make up your mind!" He demanded.

Chuckling, Danny leaned in close, bemused by the blush spreading across Dash's cheeks, and glad for the darkness that concealed his own. Before dissapearing in to the sky he wispered against Dash's check "You'll do good Dash. I know you will."

* * *

 **So for those of you that read the chapter title, you'll know that yes, the chapters have been heavy, and yes the next chapter is * when * it * is * happening * so look forward to that peeps.**

 **Seriously though it's gonna be great.**

 **Our boys may or may not be getting druuuuuuunk.**

 **Okay enough teasing, I've said too much, as always criticism is appreciated! I'd also like to thank those I haven't yet, there been a couple readers here and there that have pointed out little things like accidentally forgetting an apostrophe in it's or writing two 'a's in ''are'. The little things really do help, I don't have a beta so it's only me that reads through each chapter like five times and even then I still miss little things. So keep it up! Please and thank you!**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: In which Kwan is best bro and things get LIIIIIIIIIIT

\- paulina is having party 2night

join?

It was the day after, or technically the same day considering it wasn't untill about four thirty-ish that Danny finally made it to his bed, when the text arrived. He smiled when he saw it, warm and delighted.

\- sure

He received back a time and address followed by a string of emojis, none of which Danny's clamshell could translate, but he laughed anyway. Even a nondescript box with a question mark inside could somehow convey the general meaning.

Despite waking up very very late in the day, he still had several hours untill the party started. Danny looked at his desk with a sigh, his backpack was slung unceremoniously against his chair, two books almost having toppled out. To his credit, he did get to his homework. Eventually.

Only after some world class procrastination.

It was a little too easy to stay distracted with Dash only a keypad away. The chatted idly all afternoon, Dash kept trying to send him pictures about whatnot, apparently finding it just hilarious that Danny still had an old Nokia.

\- its even more than indestructible than i am

\- u srsly need a need a new phone man

its the 21st cent.

Camt send u memes

\- cant look at memes while fighting

\- ur not fighting now

\- dont u have something better to do now?

\- im bothering u

v important

It wasn't of course untill much later Dash finally fessed up and sent -btw p doesnt know i know u

And that was how Dash basically asked if Danny could be maybe be a little bit less... Phantom, at the party. It was after course incredibly ironic since technically Phantom was only half of Danny, but he hardly thought he'd have a welcomed reception if Danny Fenton, school Loser with a capital L showed up at Paulina Sanchez's front door.

So the evening found Danny staring in to his mirror, transformed, and considering his outfit like he was some fourteen yearold girl. He wore that same Phantom hoodie and black pants combonation from that first time, didn't that seem like a long time ago, with his gloves off and hood up. He was trying to decide whether or not to bring the sunglasses. Either running the risk of looking very obnoxious or someone making him by his glowing eyes.

Part of him wished he had told Sam and Tucker so he could ask for advice like he usually did. But that paled in comparison the growing pit in his stomach at keeping them in the dark in a more general sense. He couldn't tonight, he was already running late and didn't have the time he no doubt would need to explain everything properly.

He decided not to wear the shades.

\- omw eta 3 min

The music could be heard long before he got a proper look at the house. It was a lot like Dash's, and close too, practically neighbors, it was almost as large, but far more opulent. A couple critical differences was the massive back and front porches and considerable pool, large enough to even sport an elavated diving board.

There were plenty of fairy lights in the back, the mellow atmosphere they cast they cast slightly at odds with the rythmic pumping music. The mood was jovial, not late enough for the heavy drinkers to meet their peeks, early enough that almost everyone had downed enough to get pleasantly buzzed.

There were two figures on the front porch, each with a solo cup in hand, matching their twin, red varsity jackets. It looked like every scene from every highschool chick flick. From even this far away Danny could recognize Dash, his hair, his manner, his grin. It had all become so familiar now.

"He should be here any minute now." Dash had his phone out, the bright florescent screen lighting up his face from below.

"Checking that thing every thirty seconds won't make him show up faster." The second figure, Kwan, Danny recognized him by his voice, gestured to the device.

"Yeah yeah." Dash grumbled, taking a long swig from his cup. Danny flew slightly slower now, taken back for a brief moment by Dash. His cheeks were flushed, the dusty pink reaching across his ears and down his neck. His smile was... different, somehow. Danny wasn't sure what, whether it was the alcohol, or the party, or Kwan, but the shine in his eyes was altered. Not badly, or good for that matter, just, different.

"By the way you still haven't told me who he is." Kwan was leaning casually against one of the railings, perfectly positioned for Danny to float silently down. Frozen beer and a whispered 'boo' ought to do the trick. Feom over Kwan's shoulder Danny locked eyes with Dash, pressing his index finger to his lips, and to Dash's credit, he showed almost no outward sign of recognition. Mostly. "I've given you hints." He said, hiding a grin behind a swig of beer.

"Dude, 'cute stalker with a hero complex' is not a lot to go on."

Danny sputtered " _What_?" staring wide eyes at Dash, all thoughts of pranks flying.

Kwan jumped away with a cry of surprise. He turned sharply, forgetting about his sloshing drink and assuming a comical approximation of a martial arts stance. He took in Danny with a slack jaw, eyes roaming from head to feet and back to head again, lingering on Danny's face. " _What the fuck_." He said, gaze darting to his friend for rescue.

Dash only laughed, responding "Kwan, this is Danny Phantom. Danny, you already know Kwan." He might've sounded a touch more accusatory if not for the easy grin.

"I still resent being called stalker." Danny said, crossing his arms over his chest. Cute, on the other hand. Had Dash really said he was... no, Danny must've misheard.

Dash scoffed. "Alright, _glowstick_."

"Ugh!" Danny huffed, with a dramatic eye roll.

Kwan suddenly laughed, higher than Dash's, strait white teeth flashing. "Dude, you almost got me." He clapped a hand on Dash's shoulder and shoved. "Nice wig and contacts man." He continued, nodding at Danny.

Dash smiled wryly. At that Danny drew his legs up and crossed them, bobbing lightly in the air. Kwan's eyes bugged all over again, he hadn't seemed to have noticed that Danny had been floating all this time.

"Put your feet down! We're pretneding you're human tonight, remember? Christ!" Dash waved, looking around to make sure no one had seen, even though they were the only ones out there.

"We're fine." Danny drawled, but touched down on the porch anyway, allowing the sensation of gravity to settle. He glanced back to Kwan, amused by the jock's impressively accurate immitation of a gaping cod fish. "I think we broke your friend." He stage whispered to Dash, making him chuckle.

"You're- he's- that's-" Kwan stammered weekly, a shaking finger pointing at Danny.

Dash snorted, "What's the matter Kwan? You look like you've seen a ghost."

That snapped the other jock out of his shock. He rounded on Dash, fists bunched in the quarterback's shirt in less than a second. "What the _fuck_ man? That's actually _Danny Phantom_? _The_ Danny Phantom!" He demanded.

Danny made a move to stop Kwan, untill he heard Dash's good natured laugh. "Yeah man, just like I said."

"I thought you were joking!" Kwan stared between them, a look if contemplation crossing his face as he let his hands drop. "And you're... friends?" Has said, eyes landing on Dash.

There it was again, those little shared looks that made Danny feel like they were having an entirely different conversation without him. "Yeah." Dash answered, the both of them with mirror expressions of seriousness.

Kwan lifted his eyebrows in a question, eyes large and meaningful. Dash growled "Drop it." Despite his voice having a dangerous edge, otherwise he looked nothing but pleading.

Kwan pursed his lips, eyes narrowing for a moment. But it didn't take more than second before he huffed, shrugged, and downed the last bit of what was left in his cup. Finally he turned back to Danny, almost as if they suddenly realized he was still standing there, and shook his head. "I don't know why you put up with him. Most of the time he's an asshole."

"Would an asshole get you a refill?" Dash grinned, heading for the door. "Danny, what'cha want?"

"Oh, um. Beer? I guess? Whatever everyone else is having."

"Roger." Dash answered happily, already through the door.

Danny leaned against the railing, suddenly feeling awkward without Dash. Sure, he knew Kwan, or rather knew of him, it's not like they'd ever shared more than five or so words between each other. Although he heard from Sam that he wasn't half bad in that short stint of friendship they had back in freshman year. And he had need nice to him during that whole reality gauntlet fiasco. It still felt so inherently wrong to be standing there in ghost form, gloveless and with clothing over his suit that felt several sized too large. He'd gotten used to it with Dash, but this was new.

"So you and Dash?" Kwan finally asked. "Don't tell me that thermos plan of his actually worked."

Danny smiled. "Yeah I guess it did. When I went to get it I ended saying yes to hanging out. If that was a plan the whole time then mission accomplished."

Kwan shook his head disbelievingly. "I can't believe it. It's actually _you_ , and you're _actually_ here. I mean, wow! _The_ Danny Phantom."

This was what Danny had wanted to avoid, people getting caught up in the 'Phantom' of it all. "Uh, yeah. That's me." He said, a hand rubbing at his neck.

"Oh uh, sorry man. I didn't mean to go all fanboy on you. You probably get enough of that with Dash." He said with a bright laugh that Danny joined.

"Not enough to stop him socking me right in the face." He'd meant it as a joke, but it obviously didn't translate as intended if the way Kwan's face darkened was anything to go by.

"He _what_?"

"It wasn't hard or anything." Danny hastened to correct. "I don't think he was actually trying to hurt me, and he was definitely holding back. It was just a... reflex I think, heat of the moment." Danny heaved a sigh, they sounded like pale excuses even to his ears, but he knew Dash never meant to inflict real pain on him, or on Phantom that is. "He's going through some stuff, isn't he." It wasn't a question.

Kwan sagged against the outer wall of the house with a hard expression, studying Danny intently. "Yeah... yeah he is." Their eyes met, and there was something like concern in Kwan's. "You can't let him do that."

Danny laughed at that, though it was somewhat humorless. "Don't worry I told him that myself. Besids, he caught me off guard s'all. Got a lucky shot in, it won't happen again. Anyway, I think it'd help him more if I get him to stop trying to punch people in the first place, regardless of who they are."

"No argument there." Kwan nodded. His lips curved upwards slightly when he added. "Hell of a first conversation with Amity Park's superhero, huh? Talking about my best friend's anger issues."

"Still better then my first conversation with Dash. Managed to offend him by saying he wasn't nice."

Kwan laughed in earnest. "Again, no argument there."

A tense silence bloomed then, leaving Danny to stare off to the neighbor's house and pretend not to notice Kwan considering him like he was an especially interesting speciman. Danny wondered what was correct high school party etiquette, if he should just stay and wait for Dash to come back? Or go inside?

However the choice was made for him when Kwan said "I've gotta' ask you something."

"Sure, what is it?"

Kwan pushed himself off the wall, standing to his full, considerable, imposing height and crossed his arms over his broad chest. His tone was serious, perhaps overly so, when he asked "What are your intentions towards Dash?"

Danny couldn't help but snort "My intentions towards him? Who are you, Jane Austen?" True they'd been reading Pride and- well the famous one, in Lancer's class last month, but he didn't think any of jocks actually payed attention.

But Kwan didn't so much as blink "Seriously man, why do put up with him."

"I could ask the same to you, you said so yourself. He's kinda' an asshole."

Kwan pursed his lips, eyes darting off for the breifest of moments before refocusing. "I've been friends with Dash since before kindergarten, I'm stuck with him. But why are _you_ here."

Danny sighed in defeat, obviously Kwan wasn't going to let whatever this was go "I dunno'. At first I really didn't like him, y'know? But... I think that changed when I got to know him more. And then we realized we both like space and stargazing and stuff... we just became friends."

Kwan nodded at that. "So you like him?"

"I mean, yeah? We're friends, like I said." What was Kwan getting at?

"But you didn't answer my question."

Danny rolled his eyes. "About my intentions? Why's that so important?"

Kwan took a step closer, and despite being in ghost form Danny still cringed back instinctually. "Because I don't want to see Dash get hurt."

"Hurt? Dude punched _me_."

"But you still say you're friends with him."

"Yeah..?" What was this guy's problem? There had to be some other meaning to the weird third degree he was getting that Danny just wasn't seeing.

"So you do like him?" Kwan was too close now, too invasive.

"Yes. I like him." Danny conceded, willing to say anything to get Kwan to back off a bit. It was of course true, not that he'd even mean to put it so bluntly or in exactly those words.

Kwan did indeed, thankfully, recede with a huff, although he still stood with his arms crossed, looking for all to be an immovable wall of brick. "Okay," he said, sounding at least little less intense "I'm going to level with you, because if Dash hasn't said anything yet then he obviously isn't gonna'. So it's my job as his best friend to say it for him."

Danny was almost worried to even ask "...Say what?"

Kwan looked him straight in eye, and spoke with a level voice, expression square and focused.

But the words that came out seemed so unbelievable Danny almost didn't hear the them.

They hung there, in between them. Both soft and hard. Accusatory and concerned. They meant everything. They changed everything. They cast everything in a stark new light that Danny couldn't even begin to process.

Dash...

"What?" He said, cursing his voice for sounding so breathless.

Dash is...

"Dash is gay."

Danny blinked. Then he blinked again. Then he kept blinking like maybe the next time he opened his eyes the world might be logical again. "Dash is..." he stammered " _gay_? As in, _gay_ gay?

"As in he like guys. Likes to sleep with men. As in homosexual." And if there was any reason to think Danny might have misunderstood then that cleared it up.

"... _Dash_? Blond meathead in a letterman jacket but secretly a huge dork Dash?" He asked, just to make sure they were talking about the same person.

"Yup." Okay so they were.

"Oh." Because what else should he say? "But he's so... um..." Danny started, making vague gestured with his hands to fill in the space for a question he couldn't quite articulate.

Kwan laughed derisively "Why do you think he acts so macho all the time? And why whenever he's around people he actually likes it's suddenly like he's a totally different guy?"

"I... don't know?"

Kwan rolled his eyes "Look, the thing is, he lost his Dad not too long ago. And he took it hard. His Dad was, like, the coolest guy there is. So when he died.. Dash didn't really have anyone anymore. His Mom tried her hardest and don't get me wrong, she's a good Mom, but she's also hyper religious, which doesn't really help with his whole gay thing, but even without that they just don't get each other. Plus he's super stubborn, didn't even realize he likes dick 'till he finally took it up the ass."

Danny sputtered at the deadpan delivery " _What_?"

Kwan chuckled again, a wry smile cracking his untill then steely veneer "Didn't take you for a prude Danny Phantom."

"I'm not!" Danny defended "Why are you even telling me this, Dash hasn't said anything. Maybe he didn't want me to know? Isn't like, coming out or whatever important?" He said hotly. For some reason this whole... well he didn't know what to call it but it was making his heart beat too fast.

"Not when the gay dude in question is as stubborn as Dash is. The reason I'm telling you is because Dash likes you. And yes, that means exactaly what you think it means, he _likes_ likes you. And I don't want him to get hurt. So if you don't like him, like that, then be straight with him. Tell him, don't drop hints. Don't beat around the bush. It's better that he's told early and can get over it before he turns in to a lovesick puppy. Happened before, it's not pretty, especially when it all comes crashing down.

"Don't get me wrong, you seem like a good dude, I mean, you're a hero. And it's fucking awesome that you're here, and I'm sure Dash is crazy happy about that because he's been a fan of yours since basically forever. Or y'know, since you first started saving people and fighting ghosts and stuff, but that means you have to be extra careful with him. He's not good at taking a step back and really looking at a situation before barralling in heart first. He's a dick sometimes yeah, but he's also the best and only real friend I've got, so I'll be damned if I let the big lug get hurt. By anyone, even if they're a hero. You got that?" He finished with an air of threatening finality.

Danny really didn't know what to say. Didn't know what to think either, it was just so much. So instead of asking any number of the questions he wanted to, he answered lamely "Uh, yeah. Got it."

With some bizarrely amazing sense of timing Dash chose just then to come stumbling back out on to the patio, all grins handsomely ruffled hair. "Hey guys, didn't mean to take so long, Paulina saw me so of course she had to-" he stoped short, glancing suspiciously between them "Don't know what the fuck you two are talking about but you're obviously not drunk enough."

Kwan relaxed, stepping back and taking one of the offered beers "Nice, you got the good stuff."

Dash offered Danny a bottle too, wide smile on his face. He looked exactaly the same as he had when he went inside not five minutes ago, but everything about him seemed to have changed. Even though, Danny realized in a far away place in his mind, it wasn't Dash that had changed, it was only his own perception. "Thanks." Danny reached out and accepted his own bottle. His fingers grazed over Dash's as he did, and Danny stiffened, feeling his mouth go dry and pulse quicken.

Danny wondered at Dash's behavior. It's not like he ever acted gay, if there was such a thing. Perhaps it's was just Danny that was terribly illiterate when it came to that stuff.

"Paulie always has a secret stash of the good stuff at her parties, for the real A-listers." He tossed a grin at Kwan "And I figure even though she doesn't know it, we could make an exception for Danny Phantom."

"God wouldn't that be a shit show if she found out." He snorted.

Danny snickered, well aware of Paulina's dedication to her fanhood of him. Dash turned back, and goddamn it he was still smiling dazzlingly. Did he have to look so-

Danny took a deep gulp from the bottle.

It wasn't long before they moved inside to the actual party. It was all heady music and sweaty teenage bodies, everything stinking of cheep perfume and cheeper booze. Danny was introduced as 'Dan' to anyone who asked, which wasn't a lot, but even so every time Dash seemed to take an almost childish delight in knowing a secret nobody else did.

Danny tried not to follow Dash around too much. He was like the sun with the way everything important happening orbited him. Everybody wanted to be near him, wanted to talk to him, wanted his attention. Danny didn't want to be hanging off his elbow though, determined not to let the night go to waste just because he only knew the one person there.

There was also that little niggling hot feeling that made his chest tighten whenever they looked at each other. A chant of _gay gay gay_ marching through his thoughts and blocking out anything rational that tried to tell him Dash was a different guy. It was absurd that Danny was letting it affect him so much. But affect him it still did.

There were easily at least a hundred people, the greatest majority of whom Danny had never seen before, not even at school. People laughing, people kissing, people talking, people playing games.

There was group that at some point hoisted a shirtless guy up on their shoulders and carried him around the house, singing something that sounded like a slurred version of the latest Pink song.

In the dining room a group was sprawled on the on the floor where, presumably, the main table sat before it was pushed against the wall and laden with snacks, were playing a progressively more raunchy game of truth or dare. Danny had managed to walk in just as two girls attached themselves to each other's faces ferociously, moans almost drowned out but the whoops and hollers of the other players.

Sometime in the night Danny, three strangers, and two cheerleaders huddled in the kitchen, even though there was no reason for huddling given its size, started doing rounds of bright red and orange jello shots that made his head spin and tongue twtwist with their excessive sweetness.

Not long later he'd almost fallen in the pool when five guys whipped past him, divesting themselves of whatever clothing they could in their run, to dive in to the pool.

There was beer pong and chugging and funnels, and screams and dancing and groping. As the hours waned from late to very very early the party only got louder and drunker. Danny had been successful in staying away from Dash, whenever he looked at him all Danny could feel was that uncomfortable little worm in his stomach that was trying very hard to tell him something he really didn't want to listen to.

It was honestly ridiculous, it wasn't like Dash being gay made him a different person. It was silly for Danny to be avoiding him like this... but there was always another drink and another person to distract him, so Danny found dwelling by himself rather impossible.

Somewhere along the lines some dude that probably thought himself an artist brought out an acoustic guitar and started performing on the back porch, to the whoops, cheers and perpetual swoons of a surrounded group of girls. Just as Danny passed the entourage his eyes locked with one of them. She broke off from the group and approached him, wobbling dangerously as she did. "Dan, right?" she asked, voice raised over the din of the mass of people clamoring to speak to each other.

"Yeah, um... Allie?"

She giggled, arms snaking around one of his, pressing her sequin top in to him. She leaned up to whisper "Ashley." Danny looked down at her, much of his concentration going to staying upright against his own dizzyness and the swaying of this girl. She tried for a charming smile, but it was a rather pale attenpt, and unbidden Dash's lazy, happy grin drifted in Danny's mind.

But he wasn't going think about Dash and feelings when there was a pretty girl determined to leave boob shaped imprints on his arm.

She pressed herself closer still, almost making Danny loose his balance, to mumble something in his ear in what was doubtlessly meant to be a seductive tone "You wanna' go s'mwhere quieter." The sugarry sweet strawberry flavour of whatever she'd been drinking did little to hide the alcohol in her breath. She slipped a hand down, clumsily groping Danny's ass as she struggled to keep from falling in her tall heels.

Any other time it would have seemed like a bad decision, but Danny himself felt as off kilter as she seemed to be. His lips felt numb, and everything else felt too sensitive and hot. The warm breath on his ear reminded him of the last time he flew with Dash, when he'd turned his head and spoke warmly, singing praise that made his cheeks burn as much as they did now. "Let's go."

They stumbled in an awkward zig zag, dizzy and feeling the begginings of nausea creeping up his throat, but determined to get wherever they were going. As the walked Alice's, or whatever her name was, top caught the glow of the fairy lights strung up on the back porch, reflecting an ever-changing rainbow star system on every surface around them. Inside the music had changed to something very dubsteppy, pounding through speakers that seemed to be in all the rooms on the ground floor.

They weaved through the living room in the general direction of upstairs, although somewhere along the line they became just Danny. He brefily wondered where Anna had gone off to before deciding he didn't actually are that much, there was couch right in front of him that begged relief from the nausea that quickly went from minor irritation to hello very present.

Two people were sprawled over one side of the couch, half on top of each other and, yes, they were indeed passed out. That was okay though, it was large and L shaped, Danny would just make his way over to the other end where-

Never mind, he'd find somewhere else to sit. Danny swiveled around, or tried to swivel and failed spectacularly at it, knocking in to a table and sending an almost empty bowl crashing to the floor with a clatter and the crunch of the broken left behind Doritos. loAt ashtge sounds Dash looked up from his seat on the couch and locked eyes with Danny.

He shuffled over to Danny, laughing all the way, saying something funny and deprecating about not having seen him all night that on the surface sounded like it was at Danny's expense but Dash wasn't cruel like that. His face was flushed pleasantly, and his strong hand was oh so warm when it gripped Danny's shoulder, doing wonders to steady him. Electricity sparked, and just that simple touch was so so different from what's-her-name's and her sparkly top earlier. Danny's eyes trailed up Dash's arm before he could stop himself. Somewhere along the way he'd removed his letterman, leaving his arms, made up of tan skin and rippling muscle, bare.

Looking it to Dash's face, there was something like concern there. Danny wasn't sure what it was, but his eye brows had knit together, and his lips, dark, wet, parted slightly. "Are you-" He started, only to be interrupted by a gleeful shout.

"Look! It's Danny Phantom!"

Danny's breath caught in his throat. His hand flew to his head, a pit dropping instantly to his stomach when he realized his hood was down. How long had it been down? How many people had seen? How was he going to-

But oddly enough no one was looking at them, Danny realized, eyes scanning the room. Dash tossed his head around too but it seemed that the two of them, shuffled off in a corner and half hidden by a fern, where payed no head.

No, everybody's attention was on the dancing guy on the table ten feet from them, wearing a white wig on the verge of slipping off and shaking a couple of bright green jello shots like maracas. Making a complete spectacle of himself.

Dash was sent in to fit of bubbly snickers, leaning his head down and resting it on Danny's shoulder as he composed himself. Whatever laughter Danny had died in his throat when his hands flew up to grip Dash's shoulders, lest he fall under the weight. The thin fabric of Dash's t-shirt was hardly what one would call a barrier between Danny's palms and the taught, alcohol heated skin underneath. He sharply sucked in a surprised lungfull of air, taking the scent of the teenager so close in front of him with it. "D-Dash?"

Dash didn't answer. He straitened and tugged Danny's hood back on, hands brushing against Danny's cheeks as he did. "What..?" He mumbled, inspecting the hand, a smear of bright, glittery pink goo over it. Danny touched his cheek, the one on the same side as the girl when she'd been hanging off his arm. Sure enough, there was a large glob of lipgloss there, just by his earlobe. He wondered how he never noticed.

Dash was looking at him strangely, but eventually he seemed to have reached some conclusion because he took Danny's hand and began leading him off with determination.

Danny tried to swallow his nerves, doing his best to ignore how clammy his palms were. Dash took him upstairs, through a hallway and to a door, looking no different then any of the other dozen doors. The door knob wouldn't budge, and they heard a male voice call "Occupato friend." from the other side, followed by lilting, feminine laugh.

Dash growled in frustration, leeding him further still down the hall and around a corner. This deep in house the music seemed far away. There were no people, no lights on, aside from what little showed of Danny's ghostly aura from under his real-world clothing and the bright splashes of moonlight from the windows.

Dash tried another door, this time wrenching it opened easily. Inside was nothing more than a small WC, toilet and sink, done in soft, spring green colors. It smelled like soap and sweet vanilla. Dash fumbled blindly in the dark room, fingers feeling along the walls and groaning when he failed to find a light switch. He turned, shy smile on his lips as he made circular gesture in the air "Can you?"

Danny tried to make an ecto-orb, but it sputtered and poped, exploding in hundreds of sparkling fragments, sending another wave of nausea over Danny that warped and twisted the walls horribly. "Great, now I see even less." Dash was obviously trying to sound annoyed, but it came out sounding more endeared than much else.

"Sorry, guess drunk and ghost powers don't mix." Danny apologized, not meaning it one bit, somewhere along the line it never occurred to him to find the light switch himself. "What're you looking for?"

Dash scuffed his toe against the tile, looking down. "A towel. You shouldn't walk around with that shit on your face."

A laugh bubbled out of Danny " _That's_ what you dragged me up here for? To wash my face?"

"Shut up. I just need a towel." Still laughing lightly, Danny squeezed in to the small room, reaching past Dash to the shelf mounted on the wall and pulling down one of the carefully folded and rolled hand towels from the top of their neat pyramid.

In trying to get past Dash's bulk, Danny had managed to wedge himself facing Dash, the sink pressing against his upper thighs behind him, leaving him practically sitting on the porcelain. "Thanks." Dash said, voice dazed.

"Uh, sure." Danny mumbled, trying awkwardly to rearrange himself. The room was so small, no matter where he looked all he saw was Dash. Tall, broad, leaning over him. Danny's aura caught his pale lashes and hair, making them almost seem like they too glowed.

All thoughts of trying to phase away and hope the room didnt spin too badly shrank when Dash took Danny's chin in his left hand, gently turning his head to the side. Danny could feel the pulse through those sports roughened fingers, it's wild pace matched only by his own racing heart, thrumming so loud in his ears he was sure Dash must hear it too.

Their legs were a jumbled mess between them, the length of them pressed against each other, just as strong and steady as the rest of Dash. With his right hand he slowly lowered the hood again, and then shook out the hand towel. For a moment, one breathtaking moment, Dash just stared. Danny almost let himself think it was reverance he saw in those large blue eyes. With care greater than he would have expected from a jock, he started swiping the soft fibers against Danny's stained cheek, each movement smooth and tender. Danny wasn't sure if it just felt like the process was taking a long time or if Dash really was drawing it out.

"Did someone kiss you?" Dash asked. Even though his voice was low, there was an anger, a heat, underneath those words. His face was almost expressionless, but his mouth was set in a too tight line to be relaxed. His eyes narrowed just a touch, marred by something just a little pained.

"No." Danny answered. "N-no she just, kinda' attached herself." Would he have kissed her though? Had they not gotten separated, had Danny not been found by Dash, had that girl given herself to him, would Danny have taken her?

"Good." Dash dropped a hand, though the other one on Danny's chin remained, thumb rubbing small circles.

"Are you done?" Danny asked, embarrassed that his voice sounded so small.

Dash bit his lip, momentarily drawing Danny's attention to the teeth dragging over the pink flesh. "No." He moved his thumb up slightly, stopping just shy of Danny's own lips, the finger quivering at the very edge of his mouth. "There's a bit left. I need a little more light." Was it just his imagination, it was Dash inching closer?

Danny laughed softly, or rather he tried to laugh, because humor was always how he delt with difficult situations "Well I kinda' failed at that. Guess you can't call me glowstick anymore, huh?"

"That's not what I had in mind." Dash answered, breathing suddenly ragged. His free hand came up to the zipper of his hoodie, drawing it down slowly, eyes glued to Danny's the whole time. Down it went, each plastic knob clicking one after the other. Each little click of release equal parts warning and cheer. His thumb moved again, sweeping a slow, deliberate arch across Danny's lower lip, pressing just enough to drag the skin gently.

"What're you.?"

"Just a little more light." Dash repeated, Addams apple bobbing as he swallowed, licked his lips, and swallowed again. Danny made no move to stop him. He should. He should leave. He should leave and never look back because he was getting in way too deep and if he didn't leave soon he wouldn't be able to get back out.

He knew about Dash being gay. He knew that he, himself was only half ghost. He knew Dash hated Danny Fenton. And as much as Danny told himself that her never technically lied, or that they'd only been little white lies, none of that mattered. Because Dash didn't know. He didn't know that Danny knew. Dash didn't and Danny did and the room was spinning and the guilt was a horrible roaring monster and Dash was _right there_ and he was _so close he could almost taste him_.

He could almost taste him.

* * *

 **Whew! I had fun with that chapter let me tell you! Anyway, told you this one was going to be a doozy, even ended wracking up over 1000 more words than I usually write. Anyway, merry Christmas, happy holidays, we'll probably see each other once more before the new year, so look forward to that! Anyway, let me know what you think! I had so much fun with it hope y'all enjoyed reading it too!**


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